Fig. 3

KLF10 deficiency facilitated the Notch signal pathway. A The most differentially expressed “cancer signaling pathways” associated with KLF10 depletion in Panc-1 cells by IPA. Graphs in green or blue show category scores as − log [p-value]. Ratio (black dot) indicates the molecules from the data set that map to the pathway listed divided by the total number of molecules that map to the pathway from within the IPA database. B The most enriched pathways associated with Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 cells by GSEA analysis. Red indicates positive and yellow indicates negative normalized enrichment score. C Quantitative RT-PCR of candidate signal pathways molecules related to stem cell phenotypes were measured in Panc-1-pLKO (yellow) and Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 (blue) cells. Data were presented in mean ± SE from cumulated results of three independent experiments. ***p < 0.005. D GSEA analysis of Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 versus Panc-1-pLKO showing upregulated HALLMARK_NOTCH_SIGNALING (left panel). Heat map of Notch signal pathway molecules expression of Panc-1-pLKO and Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 cells in GSEA analysis (right panel). E Quantitative RT-PCR of candidate molecules of Notch signal pathway in Panc-1-pLKO (yellow) and Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 (blue) cells. Data were presented in mean ± SE from cumulated results of three independent experiments. **p < 0.01 and ***0.005, respectively. F Representative immunoblots of Notch signal pathway molecules in Panc-1-pLKO and Panc-1-pLKO-shKLF10 cells. β-Actin was used as internal control. G Representative databases from Oncomine showing mild to moderate inverse correlation between the transcript levels of KLF10 versus Notch-3 (left panel); and KLF10 versus Notch-4 (right panel). H (Left panel) representative IHC staining of KLF10, NICD-3 and -4 in tumor tissues from two patients of PDAC showing low (upper panel, EI score = 4) and high (lower panel, EI score = 9) KLF10 expression. (Right panel) correlation of KLF10 versus NICD-3 (upper panel, n = 31) and KLF10 versus NICD-4 (lower panel, n = 29) expression on IHC in pancreatic tumors tissues from the cohort mentioned in “Materials and methods”. The correlation coefficients R were − 0.16 and − 0.3 with p = 0.05 and 0.04, respectively