Figure 4. Caspase-independent downregulation of MCL-1 by DEK shRNA.
A, The indicated melanoma cells were infected with either a control lentivirus or one of three distinct vectors targeting DEK expression (shDEK-1, shDEK-2, shDEK-3). 96 hours after infection, cells were collected and their lysates were immunoblotted for DEK and MCL-1 expression. B, SK-MEL-19 cells transduced with the indicated shRNAs were treated with 0.2 μg/mL doxorubicin and collected for immunoblotting analyses. C, The graphs show the relative expression of MCL-1 (left panel), BCL-2 (middle panel) and BCL-xL (right panel) following doxorubicin treatment as estimated by band densitometry. Expression is shown relative to that of untreated control-transduced cells. D, Protein immunoblots in control and shDEK-infected SK-MEL-19 cells treated with 0.2 μg/mL doxorubicin alone or with doxorubicin in the presence of 50 μM of the pan-caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk.