aftereleven

yes, pretty much I'm not at all ruling out the possibility that some results are wrong, im just saying i tried to conduct the experiment as accurately as i could and the stats didnt reveal any major problems. Judging by the results, something may well have gone wrong but as i said i dont have anymore lab time to repeat anything, otherwise i most likely would have with all the confusion its causing. all i can do is discuss what i have. i've come up with a few speculations that admittedly sound a bit silly, but i'd rather not simply report that i couldnt discuss anything because my results are likely wrong.

well for every concentration tested i made four samples, all with the same concentrations, same cells and tested them simultaneously. i averaged them to get a single result. the error bars on my graphs seem pretty tight. while certain assays were done on different days, the different concentrations used for an assay were all tested together. besides, i have no more lab time left to repeat them, just have to stick with what i have and hope for the best.

Yes i really think something non specific to the protein might be causing these changes, like certain cell repair mechanisms or other cell signalling pathways that come into effect during certain concentrations, but i dont know much about this so i cant think of any reason and have been unable to find one on the net/books that can explain the opposing changes in this context. Well from the little research done on it so far, it is supposed to be generally cytotoxic to the cell line. but the research is really small, probably like one experiment, so i'm willing to speculate any outcomes, problem is i dont see any outcome that i can explain logically

hmm just had a look at that was pretty interesting. Problem is Hormesis is the exact opposite of what is happening. Hormesis seems to mean benefitial effects of toxins at low doses and the opposite at higher ones. My result suggest the opposite. Anyway thanks for the insights

Thanks for the replies. sorry Capt i wasnt clear, the protein is just derivied from bacteria, im actually testing it on human cells. the yeast analogy is good but i dont think i can compare the two. im testing it on tissue cells and not organisms and the protein is completely foreign to the cells and has been known to be generally toxic but little research is done on it. YT2095, the J curve seems to be what is happening with my results but i can't put a theory behind the cause I'm thinking in the context of this particular assay, i.e measuring the cell cycle. i wanna know how is it possible that a protein (or any other factor) can inhibit or appear to be inhibbiting the cycle at low concentrations but stimulate or appear to be stimulating it at higher concentrations. the only explanation i can think of is that the protein is generally toxic but at higher concentrations perhaps some defense mechanism of the cell becomes activated to counteract the effects which makes it appear like the protein is having possitive affects, but that doesnt seem likely.

I'm testing the toxic effects of a protein on a certain cell line but my results dont make any sense to me. Some background info: The protein is a blue copper redox protein native to some bacteria, involved in their electron transport. it is a redox protein, and is known to interact with cell signalling pathways through transcription factors. i did an assay measuring the cell cycle or S phase activity on the cell lines using different concentrations of the protein. In this assay, higher readings indicate higher cell cycle activity. I'm using a control with no protein where the readings from it would indicate normal cell cycle activity My results are strange. Using low concentrations of the protein, the readings are lower than the control, indicating inhibition of the cell cycle, but at high concentrations of the protein i get values significantly higher than the control indicating stimulation. So my question is how can different concentrations of the same protein give two completely different outcomes? can lower concentrations stimulate different pathways than higher concentrations? I'm really stuck on this and would really appreciate any insights, thanks