Figure 9. Co-culture with fibroblasts upregulates the expression of MCT1 in Ras-transformed and NFkB-expressing epithelial cells. HaCaT epithelial cells (control, H-Ras [G12V], or NFkB [p65]) were co-cultured for 5 days with hTERT-immortalized fibroblasts (GFP+). Alternatively, HaCaT cells were cultured alone (without fibroblasts) for the same amount of time. Then, the cells were fixed and immunostained with specific antibody probes. Note that MCT1 expression and plasma membrane localization is increased most significantly in HaCaT-Ras cells and HaCaT-p65 cells co-cultured with fibroblasts, relative to the same HaCaT cells cultured alone. Insets at higher magnification are shown to highlight the plasma membrane staining of MCT1. DAPI (blue nuclear staining) is also shown for reference.