Fig. 2.

Paclitaxel mediated cell killing and reversal by ultrasound in the absence of continuous exposure to extracellular paclitaxel. A The experimental protocol is illustrated. B Ovarian cancer cells were treated with or without paclitaxel (1 nM, + PTX), and in next day, the cells were exposed to ultrasound for 5 min. In 48 h, the cell number were determined by WST-1 assay with triplicate samples. The error bars represent standard deviations. The differences in cell numbers between PTX and PTX + US are statistically significant determined by Student’s T-test. The p values are 0.009, 0.007, and 0.015 for MCF-7, OVCAR4, and OVCAR10 respectively. C The experimental protocol is illustrated. The protocol is similar to those presented above. However, paclitaxel in the medium was removed before ultrasound exposure at Day 1. D Breast and ovarian cancer cells were treated with or without paclitaxel (1 nM, + PTX), and in about 24 h, the medium was changed and the cells were exposed to ultrasound (+ US, 45 KHz, 1 W/cm2) for 5 min. At day 3, the cell numbers were determined by WST-1 assay with triplicate samples. The differences in cell numbers between PTX and PTX + US are statistically significant with p value of 0.07, 0.02, 0.007, and 0.07 for A2780, OVCAR5, OVCAR10, and OVCAR3 respectively, determined by Student’s T-test