Fig 4. Vemurafenib (PLX) and trametinib (TRA) induce similar changes in the percentages of Ki-67^high, CD271^high and CD271^high/Ki67^low cells in different growth conditions.

a. Representative flow cytometry contour plots showing changes in the subpopulations of CD271^high and Ki-67^high cells in DMBC21 melanoma population after treatment with 10 μM PLX and 50 nM TRA for 44 h. Dead cells were excluded from the analysis using the LIVE/DEAD^® Fixable Aqua Dead Cell Stain Kit. b. Data summarized for DMBC12 and DMBC21 melanoma populations as bar graphs. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Statistical significance of differences (treated vs. control) was calculated with Student's t-test for unmatched samples (α = 0,05). * P < 0.05. To analyze the significance of differences in distribution of “stem-like” CD271^high and proliferating Ki-67^high cells for each treatment among the growth factor groups, Levene's test and Kruskal–Wallis H test were used. No statistically significant differences were found (S1 Table).