Figure 4.
Abemaciclib combined with lenvatinib reduces 3D cell growth, inhibits cell migration, and induces G1 cell cycle arrest associated with senescence. (A) The growth of spheroids from HUH7 was analyzed after 6 or 12 days of treatment with 0.1 μM A and 0.5 μM L alone or in combination. The data are expressed as percent of spheroid growth versus control. Representative images of spheroids after 12 days of culture are shown. ***p<0.001 vs C; #p<0.05 vs A; §p<0.05 vs L. (B) SNU398 cells were treated with 0.2 μM A or 2 μM L as single treatment or in combination for 20h. Migrated cells were then counted. Data are expressed as percent versus control. Representative fields of migration are shown (magnification of 4×). ***p<0.001 vs C; ###p<0.001 vs A; §§§p<0.001 vs L. (C) HUH7, SNU398, and HepG2 cells were untreated (C) or treated with 0.1, 0.2 μM and 0.05 μM A and 0.5, 2 or 6.5 μM L for HUH7, SNU398 and HepG2, respectively, as single treatment or in combination for 24h. After 24h the cells were stained with propidium iodide and cell-cycle-phase distribution was determined by flow cytometry. Data are expressed as percentage of cells in each cell-cycle phase. **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 vs C; #p<0.05, ##p<0.01 vs A; §§§p<0.001 vs L. (D) HUH7 cells were treated with 0.1 μM A and 0.5 L alone or in combination for 6 days. Histograms represent the percentage of senescent cells positive for SA-β-Gal expression. ***p<0.001 vs C; ###p<0.001 vs A; §§§p<0.001 vs L. (E) HUH7 was treated with 0.1 μM A and 0.5 L alone or in combination for 3 days. The cells were lysed and the expression of the indicated proteins was evaluated by Western blot analysis. (F) HUH7 were treated with 0.1 μM A and 0.5 L alone or in combination. After 6 days, the cells were incubated with 1 μM CM-H2DCFDA probe and analyzed by flow cytometry. #p<0.05 vs A; §p<0.05 vs L. Experiments in A-E are representative of two independent experiments. Data in (B, C) are mean values ± SD of two independent experiments. Data in D are mean values ± SD of three independent experiments. Data in F are mean values ± SD of three independent experiments.