Glutathione metabolism is essential for self-renewal and chemoresistance of pancreatic cancer stem cells

Figure 4 Inhibition of glutathione synthesis blocks cell cycle progression and induces apoptosis in cancer stem cell-enriched cultures. Cells from the indicated patient-derived xenograft models were grown in cancer stem cell-enriching conditions as spheres for 5 d and then treated for 48 h with 100 µmol/L buthionine-sulfoximine (BSO), unless indicated otherwise. A: Dose-dependent inhibition of glutathione (GSH) content by BSO measured by fluorimetry after staining with monochlorobimane (mClB); B: Percentage of cells in the different phases of the cell cycle as assessed by flow cytometry; C: Representative FACS plots of an Annexin-V/DAPI staining to detect apoptosis under the indicated conditions. GSH: Glutathione content in its reduced form; BSO: Buthionine-sulfoximine; PDX: Patient-derived xenograft.