Fig. 3

CAFs-derived exosomal LINC00659 promotes CRC cell progression. Note: TCGA database shows expression of LINC00659 is associated with prognosis and progression in CRC (a, b). qRT-PCR and FISH were conducted to measure the expressions of LINC00659 in CRC and adjacent cancer tissues (c, d). The mRNA expression of exosomal LINC00659 transferred from NFs and CAFs were monitored by qRT-PCR (e). After CAFs-exo was treated with RNase and TritonX-100, qRT-PCR was used to assess the level of CAFs-derived exosomal LINC00659 (f). Following CAFs-exo and NFs-exo were co-cultured with CRC cells, the level of LINC00659 was measured by qRT-PCR (g). Exosomes were extracted after transfection of overexpressed or silenced LINC00659 plasmid in CAFs, the expression of exosomal LINC00659 was analyzed by qRT-PCR (h). Cell proliferation was analyzed by CCK-8 (i–j) and clone formation assay (k), cell migration by cell scratch (l–m), and cell invasion by Transwell (n, o). qRT-PCR (p, q) and Western blot (r–s) were performed to test the levels of EMT related markers. N = 3, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001; CAFs-exo CAFs-derived exosomes, NFs-exo NFs-derived exosomes, CRC colorectal cancer, EMT epithelial mesenchymal transformation