Fig. 1

Qualitative estimation of membrane cholesterol. A MDA-MB 231 and 4T1 cells were treated with (b, d) and without (a, c) 5 mM MβCD for 1 h and subsequently replenished by 1 mM soluble cholesterol for next 1 h (b, d). After incubation cells were stained with Filipin III and viewed under at 20× Nikon fluorescent microscope (Additional file 1: Figure S1). B Fluorescent intensity was measured and CTCF (corrected total cell fluorescence) calculated by ImageJ analyzer (NIH). Statistical analysis: One way anova, post hock test Tukey. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, **P < 0.001, N.S. not significant. C Effect of membrane cholesterol manipulation in morphology of cells. MDA-MB 231 cells were incubated with serum free media (a, c) and 5 mM MβCD (b, d) for 1 h and subsequently with 1 mM soluble cholesterol (c, d)