Fig. 1

Assessment of the proliferation and differentiation capacity of MEL cells upon the induction of erythroid maturation in vitro. a Schematic overview of the MEL cell differentiation program to erythroid maturation in vitro (modified from [17]). Upon exposure to chemical inducers (I), the cells initiate their differentiation program to erythroid maturation with a probability (P) through the activation of crucial intracellular molecules (R). For all experiments described in this study, HMBA was used as the chemical inducer of differentiation. Committed cells lose their proliferative potential and may only divide 4–5 times, while they decrease in size and enucleate, under certain conditions during the final stage of differentiation, resembling to erythrocytes. b Proliferation of MEL cells in culture treated with HMBA in comparison to untreated MEL. c Cell death in untreated vs treated with HMBA cells for the indicated time points, scored by trypan blue exclusion assay. d Cells were induced to differentiate by treatment with HMBA and total RNA was isolated. qPCR analysis of the β-globin mRNA at the indicated time-points reveals efficient induction of differentiation. e Same experiment with D, although, here, total protein material was isolated and followed by Western blot analysis of the β-globin protein at the indicated time points