Fig. 4

Effect of pharmacological inhibitors of NHE1, NBCn1, and MCT1 on MCF-7 spheroid growth. MCF-7 spheroids were treated with inhibitors of NHE1 (Cariporide, 10 μM), NBC (S0859, 50 μM), and MCT1 (AR-C, 20 μM) on day 2 and their growth was monitored for seven days (until day 9). a: Representative light microscopic images of the spheroids (10×) on day 2, 4, 7 and 9. Scalebar: 100 μm. Numbers in parentheses indicate number of days treated with the respective inhibitors. b: Quantification of spheroid diameters shown in a. n = 3-5. Error bars denote SEM. The horizontal dashed line indicates the mean diameter of all spheroids on day 2. There was no statistical significant difference in spheroid diameter between the groups on day 2 (tested by a one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons post-test). The dotplot insert shows diameters on day 9. Mean and SEM are indicated. One-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparisons post-test was used to test for statistically significant differences between treatment groups and their respective vehicle control (Ctrl./DMSO). * indicates p-value < 0.05