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. 2022 May 6;14(9):2311. doi: 10.3390/cancers14092311

Figure 5.

Figure 5

ERβ agonist OSU-ERb-12 reduces the CSC population by antagonizing the function of ERα. (A,B) ERα agonist PPT expanded ALDH+ cells in ovarian cancer cells. OVCAR3 (A) and OV2008 (B) cell lines were treated with ERα agonist PPT (10 µM) for 72 h. ALDH+ cells were determined using the ALDEFLUORE assay. (C,D) ERα agonist PPT enhanced the sphere formation ability of ovarian cancer cells. OVCAR3 (C) and PEO1 (D) cell lines were treated with PPT (10 µM) for 72 h. Their sphere formation ability was determined using the spheroid culture assay. n = 3, bar: SD. * p < 0.05; ** p< 0.01. (E–H) Downregulation of ERα reduced the sphere formation ability of ovarian cancer cells. PEO1 (E,F) and OV2008 (G,H) cells were transfected with ERα siRNA for 48 h. The expression of ERα in these cells was determined using immunoblotting (E,G). Their sphere formation ability was determined using a spheroid culture with limiting dilution assay (F,H). (I,J) OSU-ERb-12 inhibited the transactivity of ERα. OVCAR3 (I) and PEO1 (J) cells were treated with OSU-ERb-12 at 10 µM for 24 h. Quantitative RT-PCR was conducted to examine the expression level of two ERα target genes. n = 3, bar: SD. * p < 0.05; ** p< 0.01.