Fig. 5
L/R membrane potential comparison in conditioned MDA-MB-231 cells. A The results are expressed as the L-median of DiBAC4(3) fluorescence relativized to R. The histogram shows the L/R and R/R ratio of the signal. The value of R/R ratio is 1. The mean value of L/R ratio is 2.65, N = 3 experimental replications (treatments with extracts W2, W3, W4; each with 2–3 technical replications). B Individual analyses of the effect of L/R normal breast tissue extracts on cells. The results are expressed as the L DiBAC4(3) fluorescence relativized to R, as explained for A. The three extracts present increased DiBAC4(3) fluorescence in L-treated cells, although not all significant. W2: p = 0.01, mean of difference 1.65; W3 and W4: L-treated NS increased tendency; pool: p = 0.03, mean of difference: 2.53. One-sample T-test with hypothetical R value = 1, for all experiments 2–3 technical replicates were performed. C L and R DiBAC4(3) fluorescence medians are expressed as percentages of the median fluorescence of high-KCl treated cells. L-treated cells present higher fluorescence as compared to the R ones (unpaired T test, p = 0.02). D Median fluorescence of high-KCl, L and R treated cells are compared. Only the R-treated ones differ significantly from the completely depolarized (One-way ANOVA + Dunnett post-test, p = 0.0037). Raw data are available in Additional file 3: Table S3