5.

Growth curves of HSVTK⁺ BHK cell clones transformed with pSilencer/negative control shRNA (▪), pSilencer/AMPKα₁shRNA (▴) or pSilencer/AMPKα₂sh RNA (•), showing a slower growth rate in the pSilencer/ AMPKαshRNA-transformed clones, with most significant slowed growth in the α₂ clones. (The differences between the individual groups (negative control, α₁, α₂) on days 4 and 5 are statistically significant, as measured by two-tail t-test, assuming equal variance (P < 0.05)). Growth was monitored by viable counts of Trypan blue-stained cells.