Fig. 3.

MET gene knockdown decreases schwannoma growth and increases radiation sensitivity. (A) Effects of stable transfection of cMET shRNA on cMET expression and its downstream signaling pathway activation as evaluated by Western blot analysis. p-, phosphorylation; shcMet, short hairpin cMET; t-, total expression. The effects of cMET knockdown on schwannoma cell proliferation as evaluated by MTT assay (B) and on radiosensitivity as evaluated by colony formation assay (C) are shown. All assays were performed in triplicate. *P < 0.05 (Student t test). (D) Growth curve for NF2^−/− schwannomas in the sciatic nerve model. Growth of mock-transfected (Ctrl), shcMet-transfected, 5 Gy irradiated mock control (Ctrl RT), and shcMet+RT tumors was measured by caliper every 3 d (n = 8). Representative of at least three independent experiments, all data are presented as mean ± SEM. **P < 0.01. Representative IHC-stained tissue sections and quantification of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) for proliferating cells (E) and TUNEL for apoptotic cells (F) are shown (n = 4 mice per group, 10 random fields were chosen for quantification). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 (Student t test).