Skip to main content
. 2015 Feb 24;6(6):3553–3562. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.3348

Figure 8. Graphene oxide (GO) promotes the differentiation of breast cancer stem cells.

Figure 8

MCF7 cells were treated as monolayer cultures with small or big GO (50μg/ml) for 48 hours or left untreated (vehicle alone control). Then, cells were trypsinized and plated on low-attachment plates for 10 hours to induce anoikis and enrich for cancer stem cells. Single cells were then analyzed by FACS to quantitate the CD44(+)CD24-/low population, which represents the cancer stem cells. A. Note that, as expected, the CD44(+)CD24-/low population is greatly enriched after 10 hours in low-attachment conditions (vehicle alone control). B. Interestingly, GO does not reduce the total number of anoikis-resistant cells (data not shown), but rather induces the expression of CD24, thereby significantly reducing the CD44(+)CD24-/low population. This suggests that GO inhibits mammosphere formation by promoting the differentiation of breast cancer stem cells. An * indicates p < 0.05 (Student's t-test).