Fig. 3.

Gene expression patterns in thyroid SP and MP cells. RNAs isolated from SP1, SP2, and MP fraction of cells were subjected to RT-PCR, followed by agarose gel electrophoresis (representative results are shown in A) and quantitative RT-PCR analysis (B) for various genes as indicated. B, Expression levels are shown as a relative ratio in logarithmic scale based on the level of MP cells as one for Abcg2, nucleostemin and Oct 4, and the expression levels of SP1 cells as one for Titf1, Pax 8, Tpo, Tg, and TSHr. Note that the y-axis has different scales depending on the gene. Values are the mean ± SD from four different experiments, each performed in duplicate. *, P < 0.05. Note that in A, some images were intensified by Photoshop (Adobe Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA) to show clearly the presence of bands.