Fig. 9

RT-qPCR analysis of MDR genes. A) Compared to parental cells, 5-FU-treated Caco2 cells showed a moderate uptick in ABCB1 and ABCC1 expression. Interestingly, spheroids showed a significantly stronger upregulation of ABCC1 than did isolated 5-FU-exposed Caco2 cells (p-value < 0.0001). B) In contrast, HT-29 cells exposed to 5-FU showed only a modest increase in ABCC1 expression when compared to the parent HT-29 cells. HT-29 cells exposed to 5-FU showed significantly lower ABCB1 expression than spheroids (p-value = 0.0012). The baseline gene expression in parental cells is represented by a dotted line. Data are presented as mean ± SD from three independent experiments as ****= p-value < 0.0001, ** = p-value < 0.01