(D) SRB assay showing that this tumorspheres SK-N-BE (2)-S were more resistant to chemotherapeutics than the parental SK-N-BE (2) cells. CRL-2266), SK-N-AS (ATCC CRL-2137), and SK-N-FI (ATCC CRL-2142) were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA, USA). Their status of amplification has been previously reported [20C22]. The cells were produced in Dulbeccos Modified Eagles Medium (GIBCO-Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD), supplemented with 1.5 g/L of NaHCO3, and 10% fetal bovine serum (GIBCO-Life Technologies), gamma-secretase modulator 2 2 mM L-glutamine, 10 mM nonessential amino acids in a 5% CO2 humidified incubator at 37C. Propidium iodide (PI), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and Sulforhodamine B (SRB) were purchased from SigmaAldrich (St Louis, MO). Antibody to JARID1B was purchased from Abnova (Taipei, Taiwan). Antibodies to vimentin, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Notch1, Notch2, Jagged1, -actin and horseradish-peroxidase-linked rabbit IgG were obtained from Abcam (CA, USA). All other chemicals were of the highest pure grade available. Side populace analysis and purification using flow cytometry Single-cell suspensions of cells were detached from dishes with Trypsin-EDTA (Invitrogen) and suspended at 1106 cells/mL in Hanks balanced salt answer (HBSS) supplemented with 1% fetal calf serum and 10 mM HEPES. These cells were then incubated at 37C for 90 minutes with 20 g/mL Hoechst 33342 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), either alone or in the presence of 50 mol/L verapamil (Sigma-Aldrich), a specific inhibitor of the ATC-binding cassette transporter. After gamma-secretase modulator 2 90 minutes incubation, the cells were centrifuged immediately for 5 minutes at 300 g and 4C and resuspended in ice-cold HBSS. The cells were kept on ice to inhibit efflux of the Hoechst dye, and one g/mL propidium iodide (in PBS) was used to discriminate lifeless cells. gamma-secretase modulator 2 Finally, these cells were filtered through a 40 m cell strainer (BD) to obtain single-suspension cells. Cell dual-wavelength analysis and purification were performed on a dual-laser FACS Vantage SE (BD). Hoechst 33342 was excited at 355 nm UV light and emitted blue fluorescence with a 450/20 band-pass (BP) filter and red fluorescence with a 675 nm edge filter long-pass (EFLP). A 610 nm dichroic mirror short-pass (DMSP) was used to separate the emission wavelengths. PI-positive (lifeless) cells were excluded from the analysis. For the formation of tumor spheroids, side populace cells were cultured in HEScGRO serum-free medium (Chemicon) supplemented with 20 ng/mL hEGF, ten ng/mL hbFGF and NeuroCult NS-A proliferation supplements. Cells were seeded at low densities (1000 cells/mL) in 12-well low adhesion plates at 1 mL per well. Spheroids (tight, spherical, nonadherent masses >90 m in diameter) were counted, and at least 50 spheroids per group were measured with an ocular micrometer. For secondary spheroid-forming assays, primary spheroids were dissociated mechanically and processed as in the primary assay. For the quantification of the percentage of spheroids, cells were seeded at one cell per well in 96-well plates. Aldefluor assay High aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme activity was used to detect NB CSC populations in this study. The Aldefluor assay was performed according to the manufacturer’s guidelines (StemCell Technologies). Briefly, single cells obtained from cell cultures were incubated in an Aldefluor assay buffer made up of an ALDH substrate (bodipy-aminoacetaldehyde, BAAA) for 50 minutes at 37C. As a negative control, a fraction of cells from each sample was incubated under identical conditions in the presence of an ALDH inhibitor (diethylaminobenzaldehyde, DEAB). Flow cytometry was used to measure the ALDH-positive gamma-secretase modulator 2 cell populace. Immunocytochemistry assay For Immunofluorescence analysis, cells were plated in six-well chamber slides (Nunc, Thermo Fisher Mouse monoclonal to SNAI1 Scientific) overnight and gamma-secretase modulator 2 the cells were fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde for 10 min at room heat, permeabilized with 0.1%.