Figure 4
From: The hypoxic microenvironment upgrades stem-like properties of ovarian cancer cells
Hypoxia induced molecular stem-like phenotype. The ovarian cancer cells were maintained under either hypoxia (1% O2) or normoxia for 48 hrs before additional analyses. (A) Comparatively, there were significantly higher levels of CD44 expression in the OVCAR-3 and ES-2 cells cultivated under hypoxia. (B) There were also significantly higher levels of CD133 expression in the hypoxia cultivated OVCAR-3 cells, but the increase of CD133 expression in ES-2 cells was not apparent. (C) SP assay shows also significantly higher number of SP cells in both the OVCAR-3 and ES-2 cells under hypoxia. (D) The HIF-1α and HIF2-α expressions were induced in the hypoxia cultivated OVCAR-3 and ES-2 cells; (E) The expressions of Oct3/4 and Sox2 were also correspondingly increased in the hypoxia cultivated OVCAR-3 and ES-2 cells.