Figure 3. Characterization of the effects of phloretin, 6-ketocholestanol and atorvastatin on the biophysical properties of the membrane. Cells were pretreated with phloretin, 6-ketocholestanol or two different concentrations of atorvastatin (ATO) as described in Materials and methods. The dipole potential was measured with di-8-ANEPPS, whose excitation intensity ratio correlates positively with the dipole potential (A). The fluorescence anisotropy of TMA-DPH is inversely related to membrane fluidity (B), whereas the generalized polarization (GP) of Laurdan is proportional to the compactness of the membrane (C). The error bars display the standard error of the mean of five biological replicates. Asterisks indicate statistical significance (p<0.05) reported by ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test.