Figure 2.

BACH1 knockout cells exhibit higher resistance to aflatoxin B₁. (A) Western blot analysis of BACH1 expression in WT and KO cells. (B) Representative images of WT and BACH1-KO PK-15 cells challenged with 2 μg/mL AFB₁ for 48 h. Scale bar, 100 μM. (C) The IC₅₀ values for AFB₁ in WT and BACH1-KO cells determined by CCK-8 assays. (D,E) Immunofluorescence staining of AFB₁-induced DNA adduct formation in WT and BACH1-KO cells; relative fluorescence intensity calculated using ImageJ software. Scale bar, 20 μM. (F) Enhanced resistance to AFM₁, AFG₁, and F-2 in BACH1-KO cells. WT and BACH1-KO cells were treated with AFM₁ (at 0.5 μg/mL and 1 μg/mL), AFG₁ (at 8 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL), and F-2 (at 20 μg/mL and 30 μg/mL) for 36 h. Cell viability was measured with CCK-8 assays. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, **** p < 0.0001. p values were determined with two-tailed Student’s t-tests. AFB₁, aflatoxin B₁; AFG₁, aflatoxin G1; F2, zearalenone; WT, wild-type; KO, knockout.