Figure 5

IRF5 over-expression increases the foci-forming capacities of thyroid cancer cells. A. Thyroid cells were infected with a doxycycline (Sigma) (Doxy)-inducible vector encoding either non-silencing or anti-IRF5 shRNA. Three days after doxycycline induction, lysates were blotted with an anti-IRF5 antibody to confirm reduction of IRF5 expression (left panels). After 1–2 weeks, infected cells were stained for their foci-forming ability (middle panels). Columns shown in the right panels represent average foci number in each plate ± standard deviation from three separate experiments (right panels). p-values were determined as reported in Figure 3. B. Thyroid cancer cells transduced with the specified constructs were analyzed by immunoblot for the expression of IRF5-GFP or p53-GFP (left panels). After 1–2 weeks cells were stained for their foci-forming ability (middle panels). Graphs depicted in the right panels represent average foci number in each plate ± standard deviation from three separate experiments. C. The same cells indicated in B, were analyzed for B-Raf (UPSTATE) expression by immunoblot.