Fig. 4

Analysis of a specific cancer-related pathway in DAC-treated clones. a Cell growth rates of DAC-treated clones. The growth rates of the nine clones were slower than those of the mock-treated and DAC-treated bulk cells, but the decreases were different depending upon the clones. b Cell cycle analysis of DAC-treated H3-32 clone. Cells with tetraploid were detected in the H3-32 clone, which had complete demethylation of CDKN2A, but not in the DAC-treated bulk cells. c Fraction of cells in specific phases of cell cycle. The H3-32 clone had a fraction of tetraploid cells much larger than that of mock-treated bulk cells. Data represent mean ± SD of triplicate experiments. d The model of the mechanism underlying therapeutic efficacy of low-dose demethylating therapy. Complete demethylation of a specific gene is induced at the single-cell level by demethylating therapy, and this leads to normalization of a specific cancer-related pathway, such as cell cycle regulation, the WNT pathway, and the p53 pathway