Fig. 1

Cell viability analysis after MbCD-induced cholesterol depletion in MDA-MB 231 cells. (a) A MTT-based method was used to analyze cell viability in untreated and MbCD-treated cells. A significant decrease in cell viability was observed 24 h and 48 h after treatment of cells with 10 mM of MbCD. MbCD treatment in the range between 0.0001 to 5 mM showed no effect on cell viability. (b) Measurements the serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in the culture medium were performed to analyze plasma membrane integrity. MbCD treatment in the range between 0.0001 to 5 mM of MbCD did not change LDH levels, but 10 mM of MbCD induced an increase in the levels of LDH after 48 h of treatment. (c) Trypan blue exclusion assay was used to analyze the number of viable cells. MbCD treatment in the range between 0.0001 to 2 mM of MbCD did not change LDH levels, but 5 and 10 mM of MbCD induced a decrease in the percentage of viable cells after 24 h (only for 10 mM) and 48 h of treatment. Each bar represents the mean and standard error of 3 independent experiments. *p < 0.05; ANOVA versus control group