Figure 4.

Dicer knockdown decreases the expression levels of apoptosis-associated proteins induced by cisplatin in ovarian cancer cells. Western blot analyses demonstrated that the expression levels of proteins involved in apoptosis signaling pathways, including P73, P63, P53, caspase-9 and caspase-3, were decreased in shDicer cells when compared with shNC cells following cisplatin treatment in the A2780 and CAOV3 cell lines. Western blot analyses also demonstrated that P21 protein expression was not affected by Dicer downregulation in A2780 and CAOV3 cells, while it was decreased following cisplatin treatment. The results were normalized to the expression of the reference protein β-actin. shRNA, short hairpin RNA; NC, negative control.