Figure 4
PFOS-induced disruption of the MT-based cytoskeleton in human Sertoli cells is mediated via changes in the spatial expression of microtubule +TIP protein EB1. The steady-state protein levels of EB1 (end binding 1, a microtubule plus (+) end tracking protein known to stabilize MT filaments) was considerably reduced in human Sertoli cells following PFOS treatment when assessed by immunoblottings. ß-Tubulin served as a protein loading control. Immunoblotting data were summarized in the histogram shown on the right panel. Each bar is a mean ± SD of n = 3 independent experiments. Protein level in vehicle controls cells was arbitrarily set at 1 against which statistical comparison was performed. **P < 0.01 by Student’s t-test compared between PFOS-treated and vehicle control (DMSO) cells. Uncropped images of immunoblots can be found in Figure S3. (B) Dual-labeled immunofluorescence analysis of ß-tubulin (red fluorescence, the building blocks of MTs) and EB1 (green fluorescence). Cell nuclei were visualized by DAPI. Scale bar, 40 μm, which applies to all other micrographs.
