Figure 2. DEK knockdown inhibits cell proliferation and migration in SMMC7721 cells.
A. Western blotting was performed to detect the knockdown effect by shRNA against DEK (shDEK-1 and shDEK-2). The non-target shRNA-expressing cells (shCTRL) were the knockdown control cells. B. MTS assay was performed to determine the cell proliferation when DEK was knocked down in SMMC7721 cells. C. Clonogenic assay was performed to measure the capacity of colony formation when DEK was depleted. 1×103 SMMC7721 cells were seeded in 6-well-plate to form colonies in 3 weeks and colonies with no less than 50 cells/colony were counted. Quantitation of colony number was shown in the right panel. D. Morphology showing knockdown of DEK in SMMC7721 cells reverts typically mesenchymal morphology to epithelial characteristics. E. Wound-healing assay was employed to determine the migration of SMMC7721 cells in response to DEK depletion. Cells were monitored within 24 hours to evaluate the rate of migration into the scratched area. Results presented represent the mean of triplicate experiments ± SEM. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.