Fig. 3

Functional characteristics of identified subpopulations. a Proliferation measured by EdU incorporation by K562 cells treated with 1 μM imatinib or DMSO control for 24 h. Upper panel (blue) shows CD24^lo sorted cells, lower panel (red) shows CD24^hi sorted cells. Experiments were performed in triplicate. b Annexin–propium iodide FACS of K562 cells treated with 1 μM imatinib or DMSO control for 24 h. Upper panel shows CD24^lo sorted cells, lower panel shows CD24^hi sorted cells. Experiments were performed in triplicate. c Colony formation assay of CD24^hi and CD24^lo K562 cells for 5 days. Left: representative microscopy pictures of the colonies formed: CD24^lo upper panel, CD24^hi lower panel. Right: Quantification of colonies formed. Blue indicates CD24^lo, red CD24^hi sorted K562. Experiments were performed in triplicate, error bars represent standard error, and asterisks indicate significant difference with p value <0.01