Figure 2

TSPY enhances tumor growth in athymic nude mice. Tumorigenicity assays demonstrated that HeLa Tet-off cells (A) over-expressing TSPY (- Dox) formed tumor at a faster rate in athymic nude mice than those whose TSPY expression was repressed with doxycycline (+ Dox) in the drinking water. Cells harboring the vector alone (pTIG) with or without doxycycline administration or the parental cells (HeLa) showed similar tumor growth rates as that of cells repressing TSPY transgene (+Dox) in the host animals. NIH3T3 Tet-off cells are non-tumorigenic cells that normally do not form tumor in athymic hosts. Inoculation of these cells over-expressing TSPY (D, – Dox), however, produced small size tumors in 5 of 6 nude mice (E) while no tumor was observed in animals inoculated with the same cells and fed with doxycycline-containing water (+Dox). Inoculation of NIH3T3 Tet-off cells harboring the vector alone or parental cells did not produce any tumor in the same hosts fed with drinking water with or without doxycycline (data not shown). B and E show examples of athymic nude mice from respective inoculations at the end of the experiments. Co-expression of EGFP provided a convenient means to observe directly the tumor growth (size) in nude mice (C, F). * Student's t-test analysis indicated that there were statistical significance in differences between TSPY-expressing cells and vector-alone cells.