Plasticity of Drug-Naïve and Vemurafenib- or Trametinib-Resistant Melanoma Cells in Execution of Differentiation/Pigmentation Program

Figure 6

Significant but not uniform alterations in the differentiation program are possible in melanoma cells due to development of resistance to trametinib (TRA) or vemurafenib (PLX). (a) The gene expression at the transcript level in drug-resistant cell lines relative to expression in their respective drug-naïve cells. qRT-PCR data are normalized to the expression of a reference gene RPS17. (b) Relative level of Melan-A-positive cells measured by flow cytometry. (c) DCT protein level assessed by immunoblotting. β-actin was used as loading control. The proteins were visualized by using ChemiDoc Imaging System (Biorad). The images are cropped, which is indicated by white spaces. (d) Relative level of Ki-67-positive cells measured by flow cytometry. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Statistically significant differences are indicated: p<0.05.