Figure 7.

Lactate uptake is crucial for the increase of the subunits of various mitochondrial ETC complexes and the stemness in human colon cancer cells. (A) Total lysates (30 µg) prepared from the 116 Vec, OED, and OEJ clones (upper) as well as the 29 Vec, OE7, and OE8 clones (lower) after being treated without or with 20 nm 7ACC for 48 h were subjected to immunoblot analysis using antibodies against the aforementioned subunits of various ETC complexes as probes, respectively. Beta‐actin signals were used as loading controls. (B) Cells from three HCT‐116 clones (upper) and three HT‐29 clones (lower) were cultured, respectively, in defined media supplemented without or with 20 nm 7ACC for 20 days. Spheres stained by MTT were scanned, and their numbers were counted by MetaMorph software. The mRNA levels of CD133 (C) and CD44 (D) in three HCT‐116 (upper) and three HT‐29 (lower) clones were analyzed by RT‐qPCR after they were treated without or with 20 nm 7ACC for 48 h. Data (mean ± SD, N = 3) were analyzed by one‐way ANOVA with the LSD post hoc test, and different characters represent different levels of significance (P < 0.05).