Essentiality of CTNNB1 in Malignant Transformation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells under Long-Term Suboptimal Conditions

Figure 4

shCTNNB1 hESCs exhibit low cell proliferation and decreased telomere length as compared to WT cells. (a) Cell growth curves of shCTNNB1, MOCK, and WT hESCs. The data are represented as an average of two independent experiments (). (b) Cell cycle analysis of shCTNNB1, MOCK, and WT hESCs. (c) Wound-healing assay. Wounds were created by manual scraping the cell clones, and images were captured as the reference point. The image of the healing state was acquired after 18 h (). (d) Decreased telomerase activity in shCTNNB1 cells. Heated HSF and WT cell lysates were used as negative controls. (e) Telomere length in shCTNNB1 hESCs. Metaphase cells from the indicated groups were analyzed by the quantitative telomere-FISH assay. Strand-specific telomeric DNA probes (red) show telomere repeats; the nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Telomere length is represented in arbitrary units of fluorescence (a.u.) (). The histograms show the frequency of different telomere lengths in CTNNB1-silenced hESCs. The results are represented as an average of two or more independent experiments. Error bars indicate from three independent experiments (, , , relative to WT hESCs).

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