Figure 1. The neuroleptic drug pimozide inhibits HCC cell proliferation in dose- and time-dependent manners by inducing G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest.

A. MHCC-97L (a), Hep 3B (b), Hep G2 (c) and Huh7 (d) cells were treated with various concentrations of pimozide for various times, and cell viability was determined by MTT assay. B. Then, the cells were subjected to flow cytometric analysis to determine the level of CFSE staining. C. The cells stained with PI were subjected to flow cytometric analysis to determine the cell distributions at each phase of the cell cycle. The results are shown as the mean values ± SD of 3 independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, compared with the control. D. Western blot analysis of the expression of cell cycle-related genes. Cell extracts were probed with antibodies against p21, p27, Cyclin D1 and GAPDH (loading control) as indicated.