Figure 3.

Effects of Akt activation on colony formation. Colony formation of control (MCF-7 and MCF7/pBABEpuro) and Akt transfected cells [MCF7/ΔAkt-1:ER*(Myr⁺) and MCF7/ΔAkt-1:ER*(Myr⁻)] in 4HT. MCF-7 cells transfected with the various Akt plasmids were plated in triplicate in 6-well plates. The following day, the cells were exposed to no drug, 0.1% ethanol, the vehicle used to dissolve 4HT, or 0.1% ethanol plus DMSO or 1,000 nM 4HT. (A) Photographs of colonies of cells stained with giemsa dye and cultured under the various conditions for 4 weeks. (B) Quantification of the number of colonies (n = 3) for each culture condition. Means and standard deviations of three culture plates for each condition are presented. The statistical significance in (B) between the number of colonies observed in MCF7/ΔAkt-1:ER*(Myr⁺) plated in 4HT compared with MCF-7, MCF7/pBABEpuro or MCF7/ΔAkt-1:ER*(Myr⁻) cells was determined by the unpaired t-test (p < 0.0036).