Figure 1

Effects of hTERT-siRNA knock-down in breast cancer cells. (A and B) hTERT mRNA expression levels quantified by RT-PCR in MCF-7 (A) and MDA-MB-453 (B) cells at 48 h after a 6 h exposure in hTERT siRNA, control siRNA, or untransfected, respectively. Relative quantification of hTERT mRNA expression levels was accomplished by the Pfaffl method of Data are shown as mean ± SD (error bar) of 3 experiments; *, p = 0.001, two-tailed student's t-test. (C and D) representative western blots showing the expression of hTERT protein expression levels at 48 h after a 6 h exposure in hTERT siRNA (right lane; hTERT), control siRNA (middle lane; control), or untransfected (left lane; blank), respectively, in MCF-7 (C) and MDA-MB-453 (D) cells. β-actin was the internal loading control. (E and F) Telomerase activity levels quantified by TRAP assay in MCF-7 (E) and MDA-MB-453 (F) cells at 48 h after a 6 h exposure in hTERT siRNA, control siRNA, or untransfected, respectively. Data are shown as mean ± SD (error bar) of 3 experiments; *, p = 0.001, two-tailed student's t-test.