Fig. 1
Effect of molecular iodine (I2) on viability, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasive potential in normal (MCF-12F) and cancerous (MCF-7 and MDA-MB231) mammary cells. a, Percentage of viable cells after incubation for 48 h in media containing iodine at the indicated concentrations, as determined by the 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Significant differences in * for mammary cancer MCF-7 cells, & for mammary cancer MDA-MB231 cells and in # for normal mammary epithelium MCF-12F cells (P < 0.05) between their respective control (one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s test). b, Cancerous cells incubated for 48 h in media containing 200 (MCF-7) and 400 (MDA-MB231) μM I2 were analyzed for mRNA expression for EMT markers CD24, CD44, E-cadherin (E-cad), and vimentin (Vim) by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Values were normalized to the amount of β-actin mRNA amplified. Ud, undetectable; *, significant differences vs. the control (Student’s t-test; P < 0.05). c, The invasiveness assay was performed to calculate the invasive capability of MDA-MB231 cells in presence of 200 μM I2. Images were taken at 20X magnification. Scale bar, 100 μm. Number of cells ± SD that penetrated the membrane. *Significant difference between treated and untreated MDA-MB231 cells (Student’s t-test, P < 0.05) (n = 3 individual samples)