We obtained

We obtained Ganetespib OSA 5 106 DCs from 1 108 freshly plated PBMCs, after depletion of lymphocytes, which did not adhere to plastic culture flasks, in the presence of rhGM CSF and IL 4. When cryopreserved PBMCs or leukapheresis products were plated under the same conditions, DCs yield was lower. On day 5, aggregates of cells with the typical morpholog ical features of DCs were harvested and phenotypically characterized. Control mDCs were obtained by adding 2 g ml LPS on day 5 and further incubating for 48 hs. Mor phological changes during DCs maturation were observed by light microscopy and confirmed by FACS. iDCs efficiently phagocyte Gamma irradiation induced apoptotic necrotic melanoma cells PKH26 red labeled DCs were co cultured with PKH67 green labeled Apo Nec cells.

After 48 hs phagocytosis was calculated as the percentage of double positive cells, gated into the red labeled population. At 37 C, 70% of DCs have phagocytosed Apo Nec cells when they were co cultured in a 3 1 DCs Apo Nec cell ratio. In these e periments non phago cytic Apo Nec cells adherence to DCs was scarce since only 6% double positive DCs were observed when labeled cells were co cultured at 4 C for 48 hs to inhibit active DCs phagocytosis. It is important to mention that although Apo Nec cells were counted as entire cells, apop totic bodies derived from the tumor cells were also present, representing two to three times the number of entire cells in the mi ture. Apo Nec cells phagocytosis by iDC was further confirmed at different time points of co culture in ultra thin slices stained with toluidine blue and analyzed by electron microscopy.

As shown in Figure 3, at 6 hs DCs had already engulfed Apo Nec cells or apoptotic bodies and by 12 24 hs digested cellular material was seen inside large vacu oles. By 48 72 hs DCs returned to their normal size and empty residual vacuoles were frequently observed. Phagocytosis of apoptotic necrotic melanoma cells induces DC maturation In order to stimulate na ve T cells, DCs must become mature increasing the e pression of HLA Class I and Class II molecules and of co stimulatory signals at the cell sur face necessary to trigger T cell priming. iDCs and DCs co cultured with Apo Nec cells were pheno typically characterized by immunofluorescence. iDCs and DC Apo Nec were CD14, CD11c and CD1a.

As observed in Figure 4B, phagocytosis of Apo Nec cells induced DCs maturation similarly to LPS induced DCs maturation, compared to iDCs. After 48 hs of Apo Nec cells phagocytosis a marked increase Brefeldin_A in the e pression of HLA class I and II, as well as of CD40, CD80 and CD86 co stimulatory molecules on DCs was observed. Also, DCs maturation was evidenced by an increment in CD83 e pression. In order to specifically analyze maturation of DCs that have phagocytosed Apo Nec cells a three color e periment was performed co culturing red labeled DCs with green labeled Apo Nec cells for 48 hs and then incubating the cells with PerCp labeled anti CD83.

E periments were re peated at least 3 times in duplicate Prolife

E periments were re peated at least 3 times in duplicate. Proliferation assay HTR8 SVneo cells were plated in 96 well plate in a final volume of 100 ul well culture medium in the absence or presence of OSM and stattic. Cells were in cubated for 12 h and 48 EPZ-5676 Sigma h. After adding 10 ul of water soluble tetrazolium reagent to each well, cells were incubated for 4 h in standard culture conditions. The absorbance of the samples was measured using a 96 well plate reader at 450 nm. The E G reference wavelength was 650 nm. E periments were re peated at least 3 times in duplicate. Statistical analysis Data are e pressed as mean SEM. The non parametric Mann Whitney rank sum test and an independent t test were used to compare the 2 groups. A p value of 0. 05 or less was considered to be statistically significant.

Each e periment was performed 3 times. Results Effects of OSM on mRNA and protein e pression of E cadherin in HTR8 SVneo cells OSM significantly reduced E cadherin RNA and protein e pression, compared to the control group, after 48 h stimulation. STAT3 phosphorylation is stimulated by OSM in HTR8 SVneo cells Basal levels of STAT3 phosphorylation were very low, although stimulation with OSM led to immediate and transient increases in phosphorylation. Effect of stattic on OSM mediated changes in E cadherin e pression in HTR8 SVneo cells To investigate the role of the STAT3 pathway in the OSM induced downregulation of E cadherin, HTR8 SVneo cells were pretreated with stattic, which has been reported to inhibit the phosphorylation of STAT3, and then stimulated with OSM.

In western blot ting, the e pression of E cadherin, which was suppressed by OSM, at 48 h, was restored by stattic pretreatment re gardless of the concentration used. Effect of STAT3 siRNA on OSM mediated changes in E cadherin e pression in HTR8 SVneo cells Applying the described siRNA method and oligonucleotide sequence, the cellular contents of STAT3 and phosphory lated STAT3 were significantly decreased in HTR8 SVneo cells when 25 nM relevant oligos, but not when scrambled oligos were used, as analyzed by western blotting. Transfection of HTR8 SVneo cells with STAT3 siRNA significantly in creased E cadherin e pression which was suppressed by OSM without affecting the e pression of the GAPDH protein. Non targeted negative control siRNA did not affect the e pression of STAT3 and E cadherin e pression.

Effects of OSM and STAT3 inhibitor on E cadherin in HTR8 SVneo cells by indirect immunofluorescence staining After 48 h of incubation in the presence of OSM, HTR8 SVneo cell staining revealed a downregulation of E cadherin compared with the controls. There was no specific Brefeldin_A change in the e pression of E cadherin, with or without stattic pretreatment. E cadherin e pression after pretreatment with stattic and after 48 h incubation with OSM was similar to the e pression in unstimulated cells.

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promotion information ISL 1 luc plas mid was constructed previously by our laboratory. pCDNA3. 1 c Myc, c Myc luc was kindly provided by Prof. Shang YF, Peking University School of Basic Medical Sci ences. c Myc luc M1, M2, D1 and D2 were commercially constructed by TransGen Biotech. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis Cell lysates were prepared using RIPA lysis buffer, which included protease and phosphatase inhibitors. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot analysis were carried out as described before using the indicated antibody. Mouse monoclonal anti ISL 1, rabbit monoclonal anti ISL 1, rabbit monoclonal anti phosphor JNK, rabbit monoclo nal anti c Myc, rabbit monoclonal anti STAT3 and anti phospho STAT3, rabbit monoclonal anti GAPDH and anti B tubulin were all purchased from Cell Signaling Technology.

Mouse monoclonal anti phospho c Jun and rabbit polyclonal anti c Myc were obtained from Santa Cruz Biotechnology. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and ChIP re IP assays ChIP and ChIP re IP e periments were performed in Ly3 cells according to the method described by Zhang Y et al. Statistical analysis Statistical analyses were carried out using the statistical software SPSS 17. 0. The data are e pressed as means standard deviation. Differences were considered to be statistically significant at p 0. 05. Novelty and impact statement In this study, we elucidated the significance of miR 196 in oral cancer. miR 196 promotes cell migration and in vasion. Mechanistically, miR 196 e erts these functions by targeting to the NME4 molecule and regulating the downstream JNK TIMP1 MMP signaling pathway.

In addition, both miR 196a and miR 196b were remarkably up regulated in oral cancer tissues and correlated with lymph node metastasis. Thus, miR 196 could be a prom ising marker for better management of oral cancer. Introduction Oral cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers world wide. Despite improvements in diagnosis and treat ment in recent decades, the survival rate for oral cancer has not significantly changed due to the development of distant metastases and therapeutic resistance. It is essential to thoroughly investigate the pathogenesis of this disease to provide fundamental knowledge for future clinical applications. MicroRNAs constitute an abundant class of small, non coding RNA molecules that regulate gene e pression by targeting mRNAs to induce translational repression or mRNA degradation.

Increasing evi dence indicates Drug_discovery that miRNAs contribute to the develop ment of cancer by negatively regulating target gene e pression, and therefore they can function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes . Recently, miRNA screening in several types of cancer has identified unique e pression profiles associated with specific tissues or clinical features, including head and neck cancer.

In contrast, enrichment in BCL2L1 was no longer

In contrast, enrichment in BCL2L1 was no longer Selinexor (KPT-330)? found. These molecular profiling analyses are mostly consistent with the notion that mechanisms leading to Mcl 1 transcription and e pres sion are highly active in HER2 overe pressing breast cancers. The Mcl 1 dependence of HER2 overe pressing BT474 cells is due to constitutive e pression of pro apoptotic Bim We investigated the molecular basis of the signal that render Mcl 1 necessary for the viability of HER2 overe pressing cells. Bcl 2 homologues promote survival in great part by counteracting pro apoptotic counter parts, Ba Bak and their upstream effectors the BH3 only proteins. Some BH3 only proteins, such as Bid, BIM or PUMA interact with all known anti apoptotic Bcl 2 members, and activate Ba Bak directly.

They are therefore good candidates as proteins that can initiate death signals that make anti apoptotic proteins required for survival. This is particularly true for Bim and Puma, that activate Ba Bak in their native form, whereas cleavage of Bid is required for it to e ert its pro apoptotic activity. We found that BT474 cells e press detectable levels of Puma and of Bim whether cells were grown under con trol conditions or transfected with control, scramble siR NAs. In contrast, these cells e pressed barely detectable levels of No a, a BH3 only protein which functions as a selectiove inhibitor of Mcl 1. Regarding Bim, it has to be noted that we essentially detected its Bim E tra Long form, whereas the Long and Short forms were less e pressed in these cells.

To investigate whether Bim or Puma play an active role in the Mcl 1 dependence of BT474 cells, these cells were transfected with control, Bim or Puma siRNA, which down regulated efficiently the targeted proteins, prior to their transfection with Mcl 1 siRNA and investigation of cell death. Of note, neither Bim nor Puma siRNA affected cell viability by themselves. GSK-3 Bim depletion robustly prevented cell death induced by transfection with Mcl 1 siRNA, as measured by APO2. 7 staining or by Anne in V staining, indicating that this pro apoptotic protein plays a major role in the Mcl 1 dependence of BT474 cells. In contrast, PUMA depletion had a much less pronounced and consistent effect on Mcl 1 knock down induced cell death. We investigated whether Bim contributes to the Mcl 1 dependence of the subpopulation of BT474 that are cap able of forming mammospheres. Bim depletion had no impact in itself on mammosphere formation by BT474 cells. However, it abrogated the ability of Mcl 1 knock down to decrease the number of mammospheres formed by BT474 cells. This is strong support to the notion that the Mcl 1 dependence of BT474 CICs also is due to Bim e pression.

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selleck kinase inhibitor Other interesting genes identified in amaranth stems to which an active role in pathogen defense has been recently ascribed include those coding for an epox ide hydrolase 2 and a VPE 1B, respectively. The role of epoxide hydrolase in defense is thought to be associated with its involvement in detoxification, sig naling, and or metabolism of antimicrobial compounds, whereas VPEs importance is believed to derive from its involvement in elicitor triggered immunity connected with the combined induction of a hypersensitive response and stomatal closure. As mentioned above, VPE expression has also been associated with responses to abiotic stress. Conclusions The work herewith presented describes the first large scale 454 pyrosequencing transcriptomic analysis of A.

hypochondriacus, an under utilized and stress tolerant crop known to produce highly nutritious seeds and foli age. This study allowed the identification of numerous genes that are presently been analyzed to determine their role in unknown or poorly understood aspects of grain amaranth physiology, such as the mechanisms employed to tolerate defoliation, either by mechanical damage or insect defoliation. Furthermore, a digital expression ana lysis of transcriptome derived data allowed the identifica tion of numerous genes that are expressed in response to biotic stress and also in a stem specific manner. This information greatly complemented the relatively scant knowledge regarding stress related gene expression in grain amaranth, particularly with regards to insect her bivory and bacterial infection.

Furthermore, it uncovered many multiple stress genes that could contribute to the effective response capacity against several types of envir onmental insults often reported in grain amaranth. Finally, a comparison with transcriptomic data obtained from an amaranth weedy species produced large differ ences in the number and types of transcripts detected. Although this outcome most probably resulted from fun damental experimental differences in the way the respec tive transcriptomic Dacomitinib data was obtained, it is tempting to speculate that such a difference reflected a large degree of divergence between wild and cultivated amaranths generated during speciation and or as a consequence of the domestication of A. hypochondriacus. The first cell divisions of the preimplantation embryo rely on a number of maternal effect factors that have been stored in the egg throughout folliculogenesis and that guide early development during the maternal to embryo transition, when embryonic genome activation occurs and novel transcripts and proteins are produced as a requirement for further development.

As there is a high degree of similarity between the populations f

As there is a high degree of similarity between the populations from selleck chem inhibitor a treatment, reads from each population from a treatment were used as biological replicates in testing for differen tial expression. Identification of genes responding to water stress conditions To identify genes responding to stress treatment, sam ples from control and stress treatments taken at the end of the stress treatment were analysed for dif ferential gene expression. Analysis of differential gene expression revealed a total of 5270 transcripts that were significantly differen tially expressed between the control and stress treatments. Read counts from the three libraries within each treatment are very similar. A heatmap of gene expression of the top 200 genes is shown in Figure 3.

Variance stabilized data obtained with DESeq pacckage was used to generate the heatmap. The gene expression patterns between the treatments are distinct while within each treatment they are similar. Gene identities of the most differentially expressed transcripts are shown in Table 3. Several heat shock proteins, cell wall genes such as expansins and drought stress related transcription factors are among the most strongly differen tially expressed genes. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis In order to determine the biological function of differen tially expressed genes between control and stress treatments, gene ontology based enrichment tests were performed. The top most significantly differ entially expressed genes were tested for enrichment using a web based tool. Arabidopsis homologs of the predicted gene models were obtained by BLAST searches.

A total of 175 gene categories were found to be significantly enriched among the genes that were differentially expressed be tween control and stress treatments. Of these, 140 categories were down regulated, while 35 categories were up regulated under stress treatment. Within the categories that were up regulated, most of them were involved in stress response. For example, four of the most significantly enriched gene categories are response to chemical, temperature, heat and abiotic stress stimu lus. Similarly most of the down regulated genes belonged to gene categories involved in metabolic pro cesses and cell wall organisation.

Identification of growth related genes To identify Carfilzomib genes relating to growth and development we compared the gene expression between five plants from each population sampled at the beginning of the treatment and the same five plants sampled at the end of the treatment. Gene expression analysis revealed a total of 3582 genes with significant differential expression between C0 and C1 samples. To study the expression patterns of these genes under stress conditions we compared the expression of significant genes from this analysis with those showing significant differential expression between control and stress treatments.

Interestingly, the protein with the highest absolute increase was

Interestingly, the protein with the highest absolute increase was the endo beta 1,3 glucanase, which is involved in yeast cell wall maintenance. Another significantly up regulated protein was the cell division control protein 48, which is an abundant and evolutionarily con served protein involved in many aspects of cellular activ ities, including homotypic membrane fusion selleck chem inhibitor of organelles, ERAD, ubiquitin proteasome mediated protein degrad ation, and cell cycle control. Interestingly, Cdc48p has been observed to participate in the maintenance of the yeast cell wall. Yap1p mediated up regulation of Bgl2p and Cdc48p in yeast may be of great importance, since the cell wall gives the cell rigidity and strength, and offers pro tection against a variety of different forms of stress.

To investigate if the genes encoding these up regulated proteins are potential transcription targets of Yap1p, we have searched upstream of each nucleotide sequence for the predicted Yap1p binding sites. As expected, most genes encoding the identified proteins were found to have a binding site in their promoter region. This indicates that most of the up regulated proteins are transcription targets of Yap1p. However, none of the four predicted binding sites were observed on the coding sequences of proteins such as the glycolytic enzymes Hxk2p, Pgi1p and Tdh2p, which suggests that their levels are affected by Yap1p in a different way. Finally, we compared our proteome data with the lit erature data for changes of the transcriptome.

As shown in Figure 5, most glycolytic enzymes except for Tdh3p and Pgk1p were significantly up regulated at both the mRNA and the protein level, which suggests that most enzymes in glycolysis are mainly regulated at the transcriptome level. In the pyruvate to ethanol pathway, Ald6p is most likely regulated at the level of the prote ome, because only the proteome changes were signifi cant, whereas Pdc1p and Adh1p are regulated transcriptionally, as both the mRNA and the protein levels were up regulated in Yap1p overexpressing yeast. Although, there are several minor differences between the two studies, it is still noteworthy that mRNA abundance does not always cor relate well with protein expression levels. Compared with transcriptome studies, proteome studies are gener ally limited by the number of gene products that can be analyzed simultaneously.

In the present study, Drug_discovery the total number of up regulated targets upon Yap1p over expression is less than the number for corresponding transcriptome analysis. Our results, however, not only show that there are some discrepancies between transcriptome and the proteome data, but also indicate that the combination of the two methodologies can po tentially lead to a more complete understanding of the molecular biology of S. cerevisiae. Conclusions We have investigated the general protein composition in Yap1p overexpressing S.

Con versely, a higher plasma adiponectin concentration is asso ci

Con versely, a higher plasma adiponectin concentration is asso ciated with a lower risk of ischemic heart disease. Cardiomyocytes apoptosis is an important contributor to myocardial dysfunction and heart failure, so preventing cardiomyoytes apoptosis is an effective way to protect myocardial function. Recently some published in vivo studies demonstrated that adiponectin mostly functioned as a cardioprotective molecule in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury. The results of these research exhibited that exogenous adiponectin supplementation can significantly decrease myocardial apoptosis, infarct size and impaired cardiac function. More detailed in vitro studies regarding anti apoptotic mechanisms of adiponec tin have been performed in different cell types.

Although adiponectin also inhibited hypoxia/reoxygena tion induced apoptosis through reducing cyto chrome c release and decreasing the activity of caspase 3 in H9c2 cells, it is not clear that there is the effect of adiponectin on palmitate induced apoptosis in H9c2 cells. In this study, our results showed that globular adiponec tin inhibited palmitate induced apoptosis in H9c2 cells through decreasing the activity of caspase 3 and PARP. Above data indicated that adiponectin might be a novel therapeutic molecule for anti apoptosis in cardiomyo pathy and myocardial damage. Recently many studies showed that several signaling transduction pathways were shown to mediate both of pro and anti apoptosis effects in numerous tissues and cell types by adiponectin, such as /Akt signaling pathway, MAPK/ERK and AMPK.

Notably, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway has been shown to play a major role in the prevention of apoptosis, and acute activation of this signal pathway can promote both cardiomyocyte survival and function in vitro and in vivo. Previous studies have shown that adiponec tin can activate the Akt signaling pathway to promote pro survival or anti apoptosis in several cell types. Here, Carfilzomib our results showed that globular adipo nectin can attenuate apoptosis induced by palmitate in H9c2 cells through decreasing the activity of caspase 3 and PARP. This effect was abolished by LY294002, a highly specific inhibitor of PI3K/Akt. This data sug gested that activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway was necessary for adiponectin mediated inhibition of H9c2 cells apoptosis induced by palmitate. ERK1/2/MAPK is a well known taking part in a signal transduction cascade in response to extracellular stimuli, and plays an important role in cell proliferation, growth and cell death. Research indicated that ERK1/2 signaling pathway would be activate by doxorubicin induced apoptosis in H9c2 cells. Adiponectin mediates activation of the ERK1/2 signaling pathway in several cell types.

While these RHFs could act indirectly or extrariboso mally, at le

While these RHFs could act indirectly or extrariboso mally, at least a few may influence they the translation of Ty1 RNA. These include ribosome biogenesis factors, Bud21, Hcr1, Loc1, and Puf6, whose absence resulted in decreased Ty1 Gag GFP fusion protein levels despite wild type or increased levels of Ty1 RNA. The RHF Bud21, also known as Utp16, is a component of the small ribosomal subunit processosome that con tains U3 snoRNA. The level of the 40 S subunit is mark edly decreased in a bud21 mutant. Hcr1 encodes eIF3j, a dual function protein involved in translation initiation as a component of translation initiation factor 3 and in processing of 20 S pre rRNA, a precursor of the 40 S subunit. When BUD21or HCR1 is deleted, Gag GFP fusion protein levels are reduced to 44 and 52% of the wild type level, respectively .

however, Ty1 RNA levels are increased 11 fold and 3 fold, re spectively. Thus, Ty1 RNA translation may be very sensitive to mutations that perturb 40 S riboso mal subunit formation because of stable secondary structure within the 5 UTR. Another ribosome biogen esis mutant with reduced 40 S subunit formation, bud22, also has a reduced level of Ty1 Gag protein. however, Ty1 RNA is not increased in bud22 mutants. Moreover, the ratio of p45 Gag to p49 Gag is sig nificantly decreased in a bud22 mutant, but we did not observe an obvious Gag processing defect in the bud21 or hcr1 mutant. Thus, the mechanism by which BUD21 and HCR1 affect Ty1 RNA translation is likely to be different from that of BUD22.

The simplest inter pretation of our findings is that Bud21 and Hcr1 are ne cessary for efficient of Ty1 RNA translation via their roles in ribosome biogenesis, although other models, in cluding indirect effects on Gag synthesis or stability are also consistent with our data. The RHFs Puf6 and Loc1 are required for biogenesis of the 60 S ribosomal subunit. Interestingly, both also bind ASH1 mRNA and mediate its translational repres sion and localization to the bud tip. Another RHF that is required for Ty1 cDNA accumulation, YDL124W, also binds to ASH1 RNA. In contrast to ASH1 mRNA, Ty1 RNA translation may be reduced in puf6 and loc1 mutants. Moreover, Ty1 mRNA is not loca lized to the bud tip like ASH1 mRNA, but it is localized to microscopically distinct cytoplasmic foci known as T bodies or retrosomes.

It is possible that Puf6 and Loc1 promote translation of Ty1 RNA simply via their effects on biogenesis of Batimastat the 60 S subunit. However, Loc1 and Puf6 have been implicated in the localization of spe cific ribosomal protein paralogs and the formation of specialized ribosomes that are required for the regu lated translation of ASH1 mRNA. Based on this model, it is also conceivable that Loc1 and Puf6 are involved in the formation of ribosomes containing spe cific ribosomal paralogs that are necessary for the regu lated translation of Ty1 RNA.

Genomic DNA was isolated from cells using Trizol, and 500 ng grno

Genomic DNA was isolated from cells using Trizol, and 500 ng grnomic DNA was bisulfite modified using the EZ DNA Methylation Gold Kit according to the manufacturers protocols. Two proce dures were used. First, methylation status was analyzed by Bioactive compound bisulfite modified DNA sequencing of the corre sponding CpG islands. Six independent clones were ana lyzed. The PCR was performed using a Rotor Gene 3000 with 45 cycles of denaturation for 30 s and annealing for 60 s, and a final extension at 72 C for 4 min. PCR products were subcloned into T easy vector for sequencing. Western blot analysis Cells were washed with ice cold PBS and lysed in ice cold RIPA on ice for 30 min. Total protein was measured using Bio Rad protein assay reagent according to the manufacturers protocol.

Protein was seperated by 10% PAGE gels and transfered to Polyvinylidene Fluoride membranes. After wash ing with tris buffered saline, the membranes were blocked with 5% bovine serum albumin /phosphate buffered saline The membranes were washed three times with PBS and then incubated with peroxidase linked secondary antibody for 1 h at room temperature. The signals were developed using an ECL kit, scanned, and analyzed with Total Lab software. The relative expression of target proteins was presented as the ratio to B actin. Cell invasion assay Cell invasion was assessed by using a BD BioCoat Matrigel Invasion Chamber according to the manufacturers instructions. Cells were loaded into chamber inserts containing an 8 um pore size membrane with a thin layer matrigel matrix.

Cells migrating to the lower surface of the membrane during 48 h were fixed with 100% methanol. The membranes were then stained with hematoxylin, scanned, and ana lyzed with an Aperio Scanscope System. Flow cytometry of cell cycle Cells were fixed with 70% ethanol for 72 h and stained with 25 ug/mL propidium iodide in fluorescence activated cell sorting buffer for 30 min at room temperature in the dark, the cells were analyzed by flow cytometry using a Becton Dickinson FACScan. Experiments were performed in triplicate in three independent experiments. Proliferation assay Cells were cultured in phenolred free medium containing 5% charcoal stripped FBS. Cell proliferation was analyzed every 24 h via colorimetric assay with 3 2, 5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide. Absorbance at 490 nm was evaluated by a Spectra Max 190 microplate reader.

Experiments GSK-3 were performed in triplicate in three independent experiments. Soft agar colony assay Cells were seeded in 0. 3% top agar in growth medium over a layer of 0. 6% agar in a 6 well plate at a density of 1 104 cells/well. After 3 weeks of incubation, colonies with more than 50 cells were counted and photographed with an inverted microscope. The assay was performed at least three times in triplicate.