Figure 4.

WDR1 promotes tumor growth and induces EMT process in vivo. A: Xenograft model in nude mice. A549 cells were transfected with scrambled shRNA (shCTL) or shRNA against WDR1 (shWDR1) and 2*10⁶ cells were injected into male nude mice. B: Nodules harvested from shCTL group and shWDR1 group. Tumor nodules derived from shWDR1 cells were remarkably smaller than those in shCTL group. C: The tumor growth curve. The length and width of tumor were measured every 10 days. D: Tumor weight from shCTL and shWDR1 groups was shown. E: Immunohistochemical staining of Ki67 and quantification of the number of Ki67-positive cells in tumors from shCTL and shWDR1 groups. F-G: Detection of EMT-related proteins by western blotting analysis in protein extracted from tumors derived from shCTL and shWDR1 cells. Western blotting analysis and quantification revealed decreased expression level of N-cadherin and increased level of E-cadherin in tumors derived from shWDR1 cells, relative to those from shCTL cells. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001.