Fig. 5
Hypoxia synergistically enhances gemcitabine-induced stemness. (a) Two pancreatic cancer cell lines were incubated under different hypoxic (1%) conditions, and the expression levels of Bmi1, Sox2, and HIF-1α were determined by Western blot analysis. (b) After treatment with different concentrations of CoCl2 for 24 h, the changes in Bmi1, Sox2, and HIF-1α expression levels were determined by Western blot analysis. (c) Two cell lines were co-treated with gemcitabine and CoCl2 for 24 h, and the protein expression levels were measured by Western blot analysis. (d) The sphere formation ability of the cells after co-treatment was determined by the sphere-forming assay. (e, f) Charts showing the data on sphere number and size after treatment. The graphs are from three independent experiments. Scale bar, 50 μm. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01