Functional maturation was induced by nocodazole and TPA in UT-7 cells. (A) UT-7 cells were cultured in the absence or presence of either (•) nocodazole (50 ng/mL) or (▴) TPA (10 ng/mL) for 5 days. Cell lysates were isolated at the given time points and subjected to ELISA for quantitative measurement of intracellular concentration of β-TG. The mean ± SD (bar) of three independent experiments is shown. (B) (Left panel) UT-7 cells were cultured in the presence of TPA for 7 days as described above. Total cellular RNA was isolated at the indicated time points and subjected to Northern blot analysis for PF4 mRNA expression. (Right panel) PF4 mRNA expression was examined in UT-7 cells treated with nocodazole only [3], TPA only [2], and the combination of both [4] (see Fig 3 legend for details of the culture condition). EtBr-staining of the gels is shown as a loading control.