Figure 11.

CEN induces differentiation in SAOs cells. ALP activity, used as differentiation marker, was assayed and expressed as specific activity in SAOs cells (a) after 120 h of treatment with NE and CEN (200 μg/ml, w/v). ALP was determined as reported in Materials and Methods, and specific activity was expressed as O.D. values/min/μg protein. Bar graphs represent the mean ± SD; symbols indicate significance: ^∗∗p < 0.01 with respect to NE and ⁺⁺⁺p < 0.001 with respect to untreated cells. Western blot analysis of p27^kip1 protein expression in SAOs cells (b) treated as above. Densitometric analysis (numbers between panels) is expressed as the ratio between p27^kip1 and α-tubulin band intensities.