Fig. 1: Effect of AF on SP cells and the expression of stem cell markers

a A549 cells were treated with various concentrations of AF as indicated for 24 h, cells stained with Hoechst 33342 for 90 min and then analyzed for SP cells by flow cytometry. SP cells were gated as the sub-population that disappeared after treatment with the ABC pump inhibitor verapamil (Vera). b Quantitative data of three separate experiments described in a. Each bar represents mean ± SD, **p < 0.01. c NCI-H460 cells were incubated with various concentrations of auranofin as indicated for 24 h, cells stained with Hoechst 33342 for 90 min and then analyzed for SP cells by flow cytometry. d Quantitative data of three separate experiments described in c. Each bar represents mean ± SD, *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. e A549 cells and NCI-H460 cells were incubated with the indicated concentrations of auranofin for 24 h, and the expression of Sox2, Oct4, and ABCG2 was then measured by western blot analysis. β-actin was blotted as protein loading control