Fig. 2.

FTO significantly promoted breast cancer cell proliferation, colony formation, and reduced cell death. a-b Knockdown of FTO significantly reduced cell number and cell growth of MDA-MB-231 cells (a) and MCF-7 cells (b). ***P ≤ 0.001, ****P ≤ 0.0001. c-d Cell numbers were counted by FACS (upper panel); Cell growth was determined by CCK8 assay. Mean ± SD. Knockdown of FTO significantly reduced cell proliferation in MDA-MB-231 cells (c) and MCF-7 cells (d) by Edu cell proliferation assay. e Quantification of signal was shown in between as indicated. Knockdown of FTO impaired mammosphere formation of breast cancer cells. Mammospheres were quantified with number and size as indicated. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01. f Knockdown of FTO impaired colony-formation abilities of breast cancer cells. g Knockdown of FTO significantly increased cell apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells and MCF-7 cells by FACS