HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Promotes Tumor Growth and Metastasis Formation via ROS-Dependent Upregulation of Twist

Figure 2

Expression of reverse transcriptase (RT) by 4T1luc2-derived cell lines carrying genomic inserts of sequences encoding variants of the consensus HIV-1 FSU_A RT. (a) Western blot analysis of lysates of derivative 4T1luc2 clones (Table 2) stained with rabbit polyclonal anti-RT antibodies [68] (I and II upper panels), and anti-actin monoclonal antibodies (I and II lower panels), recombinant RT_A as positive control (III). The parental 4T1luc2 cell line was used as a reference. Polyclonal anti-RT antibodies weakly bind to reverse transcriptase expressed by the lentivirus used to generate the parental 4T1luc2 cell line (II). Position of the weight mass marker is shown on the left. (b) Quantification of RT_A expression using ImageJ software. Signal in the lane corresponding to a given derivative clone was quantified using calibration curve built with the help of recombinant RT_A. Total amount of the expressed RT_A variant was divided by the number of cells used to make the lysate (see Materials and Methods for description). Data represent the results () from three independent experiments.

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