Fig. 3

Functional glycolysis evaluation in PDAC cells. a Survival analysis of PDAC patients according to SLC16A3 (MCT4) and SLC16A1 (MCT1) gene expression. Data from www.proteinatlas.org. Patients with higher MCT4 and MCT1 expression present worse survival. b Immunohistochemistry for MCT1 and MCT4 on patient FFPE PDAC samples emphasizing MCT4 and MCT1 expression on both cancer and stromal cells with prominent MCT4 expression in cancer and MCT1 expression in stroma cells. Scale bar, 100 µm. c SLC16A1 (MCT1) and SLC16A3 (MCT4) gene expression in patient bulk PDAC samples (n = 204; 116 QM, 88 classical) emphasizing higher expression of SLC16A3 than of SLC16A1. SLC16A3 is also significantly highly expressed in QM than in classical human PDAC bulk samples. P-value calculated by Student’s T-test (unpaired, two sided). d Multiplexed immunofluorescence staining of MCT4 (green), cytokeratin 81 (KRT81, QM marker—yellow), and pan-cytokeratin (PANCK, cancer cell marker—red) on n = 6 patient PDAC FFPE samples. White arrows indicate overlapping MCT4 and KRT81 signals. Scale bar: 10 µm. Right graph: quantification of respective populations in 6 PDAC samples by halo. A total of 30–50% of KRT81 + cancer cells are also MCT4 positive; among KRT81 − cancer cells, less than 20% are also positive for MCT4. Populations are determined in the same sample; one line indicates one patient