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. 2020 Nov 5;45(1):291–298. doi: 10.3892/or.2020.7835

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

ZA suppresses malignant growth properties and the CSC population in OSCC. (A) The effect of ZA on anchorage-independent growth ability of 6 OSCC cell lines was determined by soft agar assay. Data are presented as means ± standard deviation of triplicate experiments. (B) The effect of ZA on epithelial thickening was determined by ex vivo three-dimensional organotypic raft cultures. Organotypic raft cultures were established with UM17B cells exposed to different ZA concentrations (0, 1 and 2.5 µM), and their mean epithelial thickness was obtained from 10 randomly selected epithelial layers. A representative image of the squamous epithelium formed is shown on the right (magnification, ×40). (C) Effect of ZA on the self-renewal capacity of 6 OSCC cell lines was determined by tumorsphere formation assay. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 vs. the untreated control in one-way ANOVA. (D) Effect of ZA on SP cells in SCC4 cells was determined by Hoechst 33342 FACS analysis. The assay was independently repeated twice (Exp.1 and Exp. 2). ZA, zoledronic acid; CSC, cancer stem-like cells; OSCC, oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; SP, side population.