Figure 2. Links between βIII-tubulin expression and the acquisition of docetaxel resistance in androgen-sensitive and androgen-insensitive prostate cancer cells.

A. Time course expression of βIII-tubulin, total β-tubulin and β-tubulin isotypes in LNCaP-AI cells cultivated at 3 nmol/L docetaxel. B. Increased protein expression was confirmed by Western blotting: untreated 22Rv1 compared with 22Rv1 cultivated in the presence of 15 nmol/L docetaxel. C. Differential expression of βIII-tubulin between control vector-transfected cells and βIII-tubulin transfected clones was assessed by immunoblotting. A significant increase in levels of βIII-tubulin protein was observed in the βIII-tubulin transfected LNCaP cells (βIII-tubulin clone 1 and βIII-tubulin clone 7) compared with the control vector-transfected LNCaP cells. D. Dose response curve assessing the effect of βIII-tubulin overexpression in LNCaP cells. Cell viability assays showed that βIII-tubulin transfected LNCaP cells (clone 1 and 7) were significantly more resistant to docetaxel treatment than control vector-transfected LNCaP cells. Points, mean; bars, SEM.