FIGURE 6.

Effect of RPL21 siRNA on pancreatic cancer growth in vivo. (A) Growth curves of BxPC-3 xenograft tumor in different treated groups. A total of 5 × 10⁶ BxPC-3 cells were injected subcutaneously into BALB/c nude mice. When the tumors reached an average volume of approximately 50 mm³, the mice were randomly divided into three groups (control, NC (negative control), and siL21-Mix). The siRNA transfection solution containing 10 μg of siRNA was injected every 3 days. The mice in control, NC and iL21-Mix groups were injected with transfection solution excluding siRNAs, transfection solution + Mock-siRNA and transfection solution + siL21-1 + siL21-2, respectively. Tumor growth was monitored by measuring the largest (A) and smallest (B) two perpendicular diameters with a caliper, and calculated the tumor volume: (v) = a × b² × 0.5236. (B)The RPL21 protein levels in different groups with western blot assays. (C) The RPL21 mRNA levels in different xenograft tumor groups with quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assays. GAPDH and β-Actin were used as an internal control for qPCR and western blot analyses, respectively. (D) Tumor sections were stained with anti-human PCNA monoclonal antibody to detect proliferating cells. Each bar represents the mean ± SD of three separate experiments with triplicate wells per condition, *P < 0.05.