) at 20 min intervals. The

cells were mounted on metallic stubs, stored in a desiccator overnight, sputter-coated with gold, and their morphology was examined with a scanning electron microscope (JMS-T33A scanning microscope, JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). The effects of ZOL on Col-I and ALP expression was evaluated after 48 h of contact NLG919 research buy of the drug with the cells by two-step real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), which is a sensitive and fast method to evaluate gene expression. Unlike conventional PCR, this technique needs a small number of samples, less methodological standardization and no contaminant reagents. Another advantage is that the amplification can be observed at any cycle, and no post processing of samples is required.22 For this test, the cell were transferred to microcentrifuge

tubes to which 1 mL of trizol (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) was added to inhibit the action of RNAases and the cells were incubated for 5 min at room temperature. Next, 0.2 mL of chloroform was added for each 1.0 mL de trizol (Sigma Aldrich Corp., St. Louis, http://www.selleckchem.com/products/pci-32765.html MO, USA) to promote release of the cytoplasmic proteins. The tubes were agitated manually for 15 s, left rest for 2–3 min at room temperature, and centrifuged at 1200 rcf (Microcentrifuge Eppendorf model 5415R, Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany) for 15 min at 4 °C. After centrifugation, the samples presented three phases: a precipitated phase, corresponding to the organic portion (phenol, CYTH4 chloroform, DNA), an intermediate phase (proteins) and a more aqueous supernatant phase, corresponding to RNA (RNA and buffer). The aqueous phase was aliquoted to a new tube, in which 0.5 mL of isopropanol (Sigma–Aldrich Corp.) was added for each 1.0 mL of trizol to promote precipitation of RNA in solution. The samples were maintained at room temperature for 10 min and then centrifuged at 12,000 rcf for 10 min at 4 °C. After this stage, formation of a precipitated fraction (pellet) was observed at the bottom of the tube. The supernatant fraction was discarded and the precipitated phase was dried by inverting the tubes onto a blotting paper sheet during 10 min. After drying, 1.0 mL of

75% ethanol (Sigma–Aldrich Corp.) was added for each 1.0 mL of trizol and the samples were agitated and centrifuged at 7500 rcf for 5 min at 4 °C. The supernatant fraction was discarded and the RNA was subjected to the same drying procedure for 30 min. Next, the RNA was resuspended in 10 μL of ultrapure water (Invitrogen) and the resulting solution was incubated at 55 °C for 10 min. Part of the obtained RNA (1.0 mL) was diluted in ultrapure water at 1:50 for quantification of RNA in an Eppendorf biophotometer (model Eppendorf RS-232C, Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany). cDNA was synthesized from each RNA sample for qPCR using the High Capacity cDNA Reverse Transcriptions Kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA), according to the following protocol.