Figure 3.

PCAIs induce the degeneration of 3D spheroid cultures. Cells were seeded in Nunclon Sphera 96-well, U-shaped-bottoms microplates and allowed to grow and form compact spheroids overnight. They were then treated with the indicated concentrations of the respective PCAIs for 48 h. The effects of the PCAIs were captured using the Nikon Eclipse Ti 100 inverted microscope (4× magnification) with Nikon DS Qi2 camera. At higher concentrations of PCAIs, the spheroids disintegrate. The effect of the PCAIs on spheroid cultures was quantified by measuring the areas of the spheroid bodies using the NIS-Element software. The results are the mean ± SEM, n = 3. Statistical significance (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 and *** p < 0.001) was determined using one-way ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett’s tests.