Figure 5.

Cell sorting of K7M2 cells via ALDH activity and differential features of ALDH-high cells and ALDH-low cells. (a) K7M2 cells were suspended in Aldefluor buffer and sorted according to their fluorescence. Cells were treated with DEAB to block ALDH fluorescence, and cells were deemed ALDH-high if their fluorescence was higher than that of the DEAB-treated controls. Cells were deemed ALDH-low if their fluorescence was lower than that of the DEAB-treated controls. (b) ALDH-high and ALDH-low K7M2 cell invasion was tracked over a period of 24 hours and the data obtained is displayed. The ALDH-high cells displayed a much higher invasion potential, with more fraction of cells invading through the matrigel (2.5%). (c) Under bright field microscopy and under fluorescent microscopy (after staining for actin (green) and nucleic acids (blue)) ALDH-high K7M2 cells displayed more filopodia than ALDH-low cells. Also the ALDH-high cells were more irregularly shaped and were more pleomorphic than ALDH-low K7M2 cells.