Figure 3.

ANKHD1 promotes colorectal cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Representative images of the migration and invasion of HCT116 cells (A) and SW480 cells (B) infected with shANKHD1 or shNC or none. ANKHD1 silencing significantly repressed cell migration and invasion (C, D, ***P < 0.001). The cell counts are for the invasion assay with at least five random microscope fields (invasion: × 200 magnification). Cell migration is expressed as the percentage of migrating cells in at least five random microscope fields of view (Analysis conducted with ImageJ software, migration: × 200 magnification). In total, 1 × 10⁶ HCT116-shNC and HCT116-shANKHD1 cells were injected into nude mice through the tail vein, and the mice were reared for 40 days before being sacrificed to evaluate the lung metastases. Representative figures for lung metastatic tumors (E) show that mice injected with HCT116-shANKHD1 cells had fewer metastatic nodules than those injected with HCT116-shNC cells (*P < 0.05). (F) H&E staining of mouse lung metastases and normal lung tissue (× 200 magnification).