Figure 5.

Low miR-936-induced upregualtion of Pim-3 mediates sorafenib resistance in liver cancer by the induction of ferroptosis blockade. (A, B) Huh7/SOR and HepG2/SOR cells were pretransfected with miR-936 mimics, GV102-Pim-3-shRNA plasmid, GV102-NRF2-shRNA plasmid, the combination of miR-936 mimics and GV657-Pim-3 plasmid, or the combination of miR-936 mimics and GV657-NRF2 plasmid for 24 h. These cells were then incubated with sorafenib (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 μM) for another 48h. The growth inhibition of indicated cells was determined using CCK-8 method. (C, D) Huh7/SOR and HepG2/SOR cells were pretransfected with miR-936 mimics, GV102-Pim-3-shRNA plasmid and GV102-NRF2-shRNA plasmid, or the combination of indicated plasmids and ferrostatin-1 (2 μM) for 24 h prior to incubation with sorafenib (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 μM) for another 48h. The growth inhibition of indicated cells were ascertained using CCK-8 method. In (A–D), the results were expressed as the means ± SD of three replicates. ^**P<0.01.