Fig. 4.
circLMTK2 enhances GC cell migration and invasion in vitro and tumour metastasis in vivo. (a and b) Silencing circLMTK2 inhibits the migration and invasion of AGS cells transfected with control or circLMTK2 siRNAs. (c and d) Silencing circLMTK2 inhibits the migration and invasion of MGC-803 cells transfected with control or circLMTK2 siRNAs. (e) Stable circLMTK2 overexpression promoted BGC-823 cell migration and invasion in vitro. Representative images are shown on the left. The values shown on the right represent the mean ± SEM. (f) BGC-823 cells stably transfected with circLMTK2 or empty vector control were injected into the tail vein of BALB/c nude mice (2 × 106 cells per mouse, n = 9 for each group). The nude mice treated with circLMTK2-transfected cells demonstrated significantly more lung metastatic colonies. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM. Scale bars, 100 and 400 μm. The paraffin sections were imaged with a Leica Microsystems Microscope (Leica biosystems, Wetzlar, Germany). (A-F) The data are the means ± SEM of three experiments. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 (Student’s t-test)