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. 2018 Jun 13;58(7):296–302. doi: 10.2176/nmc.ra.2018-0040

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Intracellular cholesterol level regulates the sensitivity of glioblastoma (GBM) cells against temozolomide (TMZ; 400 μM)-induced cell death. (A) Intracellular cholesterol levels of TMZ-sensitive clone of U251 MG human GBM cell line (U251-Con cells) continuously treated by vehicle (dimethyl sulfoxide) and clone of U251-Con cells with acquired TMZ resistance after continuous TMZ treatment (U251-R cells) showing that total intracellular cholesterol was significantly lower in U251-R cells compared with U251-Con cells. (B) In vitro intracellular cholesterol measurement after TMZ, methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MaCD; 0.5 mM) or water-soluble cholesterol (Chol; 20 μg/ml) treatment showing intracellular cholesterol level was upregulated by single TMZ treatment and fluctuated according to addition of MaCD and Chol. (C) Under the same conditions, cell death rate and immunoblotting of cleavage of lamin A/C showed almost the same trends as intracellular cholesterol level of U251-Con cells. (D) Combination of TMZ and Chol dramatically enhanced cell death induction in U251-R cells compared with single TMZ treatment. lamin A/C: apoptosis marker cleaved by active effector caspases. *P < 0.01. Reproduced with permission from the Biochem Biophys Res Commun (495: 1292–1299, 2018)©2018, Elsevier B.V49).