Determination of the effects induced by different drugs on the prostasphere-forming ability of the SP cell fraction from highly invasive and tumorigenic WPE1-NB26 cell line.

<p>The SP and non-SP cell fractions from the WPE1-NB26 cell line were subjected to the prostasphere formation culture on an ultra-low attachment plate in serum-free keratinocyte medium. The representative pictures of the dense prostaspheres formed by SP WPE1-NB26 cells (<b>a</b>) without or (<b>b</b>) after a treatment with exogenous EGF as compared to diffuse, abortive and very small aggregates formed by non-SP WPE1-NB26 cells are shown at a similar magnification of ×200. Moreover, the representative pictures of the prostaspheres formed by the SP WPE1-NB26 cell fraction (<b>a</b>) without or (<b>b</b>) after a treatment with exogenous EGF in the presence of different drugs, including a specific inhibitory agent of EGFR (gefitinib), PI3K (LY294002), pAkt (pAkt inhibitor VIII), NF-κB (partenolide), MIC-1 (anti-MIC-1 antibody) or docetaxel, are also shown at a similar magnification of ×200. The quantitative data of the number of prostaspheres formed by the SP WPE1-NB26 cell fraction (<b>c</b>) without or (<b>d</b>) after a treatment with exogenous EGF in the absence (control) or presence of different inhibitory agents obtained from at least 3 separate experiments are shown.