Fig. 4.

Inhibition of MDM2 mimics the tumor suppressor effect of miR-590-3p. A RT-qPCR showing the expression of MDM2 after transfecting HepG2 cells with si-MDM2 or si-NC. B Western blot showing the successful depletion of MDM2 protein expression. Full-length blot is presented in Supplementary Figure S3(A&B). C Colony formation assay was performed to assess the effect of MDM2 knockdown on the ability of HepG2 cells to form colonies. D Transwell assay was employed to verify the effect of MDM2 silencing on the migration of HepG2 cells. E RT-qPCR showing the expression of SNAIL, SLUG, ZEB1, and ZEB2 following MDM2 knockdown, with GAPDH as an internal control. F RT-qPCR showing the transcript levels of N-cadherin and Vimentin in si-NTC and si-MDM2 transfected HepG2 cells, with GAPDH as an internal control. Data values are expressed as the mean ± SEM (N = 3) for all assays except for western blotting (N = 2). Statistically significant at *P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (Student t-test, two-tailed). siMDM2-MDM2 siRNA, siNC- negative siRNA