Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 24 pp 9877—9889
SOX2-high cancer cells exhibit an aggressive phenotype, with increases in stemness, proliferation and invasion, as well as higher metabolic activity and ATP production
Figure 2. SOX2-high MCF7 cells show a significant increase in mitochondrial mass and in stemness markers. MCF7 cells stably-transduced with the SOX2-GFP reporter construct were subjected to FACS sorting to isolate the 5% highest GFP (GFP-high) and the 5% lowest GFP (GFP-low) subpopulations. (A) Mitochondrial mass was assessed with MitoTracker Deep-Red by flow cytometry. (B) CD44 levels were determined with an APC mouse anti-Human CD44 antibody by flow cytometry. (C) OCT4 levels were evaluated with a OCT4-PE antibody by flow cytometry. Experiments were performed at least 3 times independently. Results are shown as the mean ± SD: t-test, two tailed-test, *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.