Fig. 3.

AFAP1-AS1 knockdown markedly suppressed the proliferation and arrested the cell cycle of TSCC cells in vitro. a ShRNA knockdown of AFAP1-AS1 expression. ShRNA dramatically suppressed AFAP1-AS1 expression at the RNA level when compared with Mock and the scrambled control shRNA (shR-NC) in SCC-9 and CAL-27 cell lines by qRT-PCR. b A CCK-8 assay was performed to measure proliferation in SCC-9 and CAL-27 cell lines transfected with siR-AFAP1-AS1. c A cell clone formation assay was performed to measure the cell clonogenicity in SCC-9 and CAL-27 cell lines transfected with siR- AFAP1-AS1. d Flow cytometry analysis of cell cycles showed that the knockdown of AFAP1-AS1 in SCC-9 and CAL-27 cell lines elevated the percentage of cells in G1 phase, and lowered the percentage of cells in S phase. The data represent the mean ± SDs of 3 replicates. *Indicates a significant difference between the Mock group and shR-AFAP1-AS1 group, #indicates a significant difference between the shR-NC group and the shR-AFAP1-AS1 group. * P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001; # P < 0.05; ## P < 0.01;### P < 0.001