PTEN disruption in Chordoma is associated with enhanced in vitro proliferation and invasion.

(A) A representative immunoblot for PTEN expression demonstrating a decreased level of expression of PTEN in the chordoma specimens with LOH at 10q23 locus compared with wild type chordomas. T98G is used as a positive control and U87MG is used as a negative control for PTEN expression. This is a representative blot from three independent experiments. (B)Cell proliferation assay assessed by the MTS method demonstrating a higher rate of proliferation among chordoma cell lines with PTEN LOH compared with wild type. ** P<0.05, Two sample independent student’s t test. (C and D) Cell proliferation assay assessed by MTS method demonstrating a higher rate of proliferation for chordoma lines with PTEN LOH compared with wild type. Addition of 50ng/mL of PDGF results in increased proliferation in both PTEN LOH and wild type cells. Addition of 1 uM of PDGF inhibitor resulted in decreased proliferation compared to untreated control. **P<0.05, Two sample independent student’s t test compared to untreated control from respective cell lines. (E) A representative matrigel invasion assay from demonstrating significant decrease in invasion in response to PDGF inhibition among PTEN wild type chordoma lines compared with PTEN +/- cells. These images are representative of 3 independent experiments. *P<0.05, Two sample independent student’s t test.