Figure 4.

Mitochondrial fission factor (MFF) inhibits 3D-spheroid formation and ALDH activity. (A) Evaluation of mammosphere formation efficiency (MFE) in stably transduced MCF7 cells harboring the mitochondrial fission factor (MCF7-MFF) and the respective empty-vector (MCF-7 Control), which were seeded on low-attachment plates for 5 days. Under these conditions, MCF7-MFF cells show a reduction by 45% in the mammosphere forming capacity as compared to MCF7-Control cells. (B) Evaluation of ALDEFLUOR activity, an independent marker of CSCs in MCF7 cells harboring MFF (MCF7-MFF) and the respective empty vector control (MCF-Control). Each sample was normalized using diethylaminobenzaldehyde (DEAB), a specific ALDH inhibitor, as negative control. (C) The tracing of representative samples is shown. Results are the average of the mean of three independent experiments performed in triplicate and are expressed as percentages normalized to the control ± SEM. **p < 0.01.