Figure 2. Inhibiting mitochondrial fission in HeLa cells leads to drop in ATP levels and a proliferative arrest.

A. HeLa cells were treated with the F₁F₀ ATP synthase inhibitor oligomycin (10 µM) and total cellular ATP levels were determined after 2 h of treatment. ATP levels after oligomycin treatment are expressed as the percentage of the ATP level in untreated HeLa cells. Results are calculated from 3 independent experiments+SEM (***: P<0.0005). B. HeLa cells were transiently transfected with the Ctrl, D1 or D2 constructs, selected with puromycin for 24 h, collected 96 h to measure total cellular ATP content. The quantity of ATP in D1 and D2 cells was expressed as a percentage of the ATP in Ctrl cells. The results represent the mean+SEM from 3 independent experiments (*: P<0.05). C. 96 h after transfection, Hela cells treated as in B. were grown in the presence of 10 µM BrdU for a further 18 h, fixed and stained with a BrdU antibody. The percentage of cells positively stained with BrdU was quantified from 3 independent experiments+SEM (***: P<0.0005).