Figure 2. Enriched OSIC activities correlate with accelerated sphere formation and expression of stem/progenitor cell-associated genes.
(A) Microscopy analysis of spheres cultivated in suspension for 12 days. Representative phase-contrast micrographs of spheres were shown with 400x magnification. UT1 or UT2 vs. U2OS: *P<0.05; **P<0.01. (B) Up-regulated expressions of stem cell/progenitor marker genes in UT2 cells compared to parental U2OS cells. (C-H) Serial transplantation up-regulated expressions of signaling molecules in the Notch, Wnt, and TGFβ pathways. The color bar represents the expression ratio on a log-2 scale (UT2 vs. U2OS or MSC).