Figure 1. Splicing factor knockdown can selectively kill cSCC cells.

Normal skin cells (NHF, NHK) and cSCC lines derived from a primary tumour (SCCRDEB4) and a metastatic tumour (SCCRDEBMet) from RDEB patients and a metastatic tumour from a transplant recipient (SCCTMet) were mock transfected (−), transfected with a non-targeting siRNA (Control) or transfected with three individual siRNAs targeting the indicated splicing factors. A cytotoxic siRNA (TOX) was used as a positive control for transfection efficiency. Cell viability (live cell number) expressed as a percentage of carrier alone and the percentage of dead cells were assayed by real-time imaging 96 hours after transfection. The values are the mean −/+ range of two independent experiments. Splicing factor knockdown generally caused a larger reduction in viability and a greater level of cell death in cSCC cell lines than in normal skin cells.