Fig. 3. Effect of the ERM peptide on actin organization. (A) Cells were either left untreated (CTR) or stimulated with forskolin (FK) with or without preincubation for 3 hours with the ERM peptide or with the control peptide. F-actin was stained with TRITC-conjugated phalloidin and visualized by epifluorescence microscopy. Bar, 5 µm. (B) F-actin quantization by actin polymerization assay. Confluent cells were either left untreated (CTR) or stimulated with forskolin (FK) or preincubated for 3 hours with the ERM peptide. As internal control, cells were incubated with a control peptide with a reversed sequence with respect to the ERM peptide. After staining with TRITC-phalloidin, cells were extracted with cold methanol and the fluorescence absorbance of extracts was read (540/565 nm) in a RF-5301PC fluorimeter. The values obtained were compared by a one-way Anova and Tukey's multiple comparison test (#P<0.001).