Fig. 1: The mevalonate pathway controls cell growth and proliferation.
From: The mevalonate coordinates energy input and cell proliferation
a, b Lovastatin treatment suppresses the proliferation of colon cancer cells, and exogenous MVA restores the cell proliferation. The cells are treated with lovastatin (5 μM) or lovastatin plus MVA (0.5 mM) for 48 h, then the ATP level is measured to evaluate the cell proliferation (a) or take pictures under the optical microscope to observe the cell morphology (b). c, d Lovastatin treatment induces cell cycle arrest, but exogenous MVA releases the arrested cell cycle. RKO cells are treated with lovastatin or lovastatin plus MVA for 48 h and followed by cell cycle analysis using flow cytometry. e, f Lovastatin treatment downregulates the RNA (e) and protein expression (f) of PCNA, but exogenous MVA recovers the expression to a level of no-treatment condition. RKO or SW480 cells are treated with lovastatin or lovastatin plus MVA for 48 h, then the RNA and protein are isolated for RT-PCR or western blot assays. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05 (LOVA versus L + MVA)
