Figure 4. Effect of YAP and TAZ expression on proliferation and apoptosis of HCT116 cells.
(A) Western blot analysis of cell lines with reduced YAP and TAZ levels after transfection with siRNAs: parental HCT116 cells carrying no siRNA (parental); control siRNA (si-Con); siRNA to YAP (si-YAP); siRNA to TAZ (si-TAZ); and co-transfected with siRNA to YAP and siRNA to TAZ (si-YAP-TAZ). (B) MTT cell growth assays of control cells (parental, si-Con); cells with reduced YAP or TAZ expression (si-YAP, si-TAZ); or cells with reduced YAP and TAZ expression (si-YAP-TAZ). Data are presented as mean ± SD, N = 3, *P<0.05. (C) Flow cytometric analyses of cells stained with Annexin-V-FITC and PI: cells carrying no siRNA (parental); control siRNA (si-Con); siRNA to YAP (si-YAP); siRNA to TAZ (si-TAZ); and cells with reduced YAP and TAZ expression (si-YAP-TAZ). These results indicate that YAP expression has a greater effect on cell proliferation and suppression of apoptosis compared to TAZ expression; however, a synergistic role between YAP and TAZ increases their combined individual effects.