Fig. 4.

Effect of rapamycin, PD98059, and combination treatment on the proliferation of ovarian cancer cell lines that contain multiple survival pathways. Ovarian cancer cell lines T1, T2, mC1+Akt, and T2+K-ras were seeded into six-well dishes in triplicate. After 2 days of growth in culture, the medium was removed and replaced with a medium that contained one of the following: 100 ng/ml rapamycin dissolved in ethanol and 50 μM PD98059 dissolved in DMSO, 100 ng/ml rapamycin with ethanol and DMSO, 50 μM PD98059 with ethanol and DMSO, or ethanol and DMSO. The cells were treated for 8 days, during which time the culture medium was changed every second day. To monitor cell proliferation, drug- and vehicle-treated cells were harvested every second day and stained with crystal-violet dye. The numbers on the y axis represent relative absorbance of the cell-associated dye at 590 nm. The error bars indicate standard deviation in triplicate cultures.