Fig. 3: CAFs could reduce BCa cell sensitivity to cisplatin, promote BCa cell proliferation and decrease cisplatin-induced apoptosis.

a The cell viability with different concentrations of cisplatin as measured by the MTT assay. b The IC50 values in each group. c Colony formation assay showed that after 2 weeks of culture, compared with the non-co-culture groups, the co-cultured T24 and 5637 cell groups showed increased colony forming ability. All groups were treated with a specific concentration of cisplatin (T24, 25 mg/L and 5637, 6 mg/L). d, e Apoptotic cells were detected by Annexin V-FITC and PI double staining and analysed by flow cytometry. The result showed that co-culturing reduced cisplatin-induced apoptosis (T24, 25 mg/L and 5637, 6 mg/L respectively). f Total and cleaved caspase-3 levels in BCa cells were determined by western blotting for each group. T24 and 5637 cells grown with (+) or without (−) CAF co-culture (24 h) were incubated for 24 h in the presence (+) or absence (−) of 25 mg/L and 6 mg/L cisplatin, respectively. The histogram on the right illustrates the ratio of cleaved caspase-3 and total caspase-3. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. *P < 0.05