Figure 6. Breast epithelial stem-like cells possess lower NER activities than breast epithelial non-stem cells.
(A) NER activities calibrated from whole cells. Human breast stem-like cells and breast epithelial non-stem cells were isolated from two individuals. Both types of cells (5 × 105) were transfected with CPD-containing oligonucleotide (0.02 nM) mediated by calcium phosphate and incubated at 37°C for 48 h. After incubation, oligonucleotides were retrieved from whole cells and qPCR was employed for calibration of repair efficiencies. (B) NER activities calibrated from nuclei. The cells were treated under the same condition as described in (A). Oligonucleotides were retrieved from isolated nuclei for qPCR analyses. Data are presented as % repaired of the CPD-containing oligonucleotides per cell (mean ± S.D., n = 3 for both types of cells of individual 1 and for non-stem cells of individual 2; n = 2 for stem-like cells of individual 2).