Short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 3 exhibits tumor-suppressing effects in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Figure 4 Short hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 3 suppresses migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. A and B: Cell migration assay showed that migrated cells of the shNFE2L3 group were less than that of the shCtrl group in BEL-7404 and SMMC-7721 cells; C and D: Cell invasion assay showed that invaded cells of the shNFE2L3 group were less than that of the shCtrl group in BEL-7404 and SMMC-7721 cells. Both cell migration and invasion were measured with transwell assays. Migrated and invaded cells were stained with Giemsa and imaged and counted under a microscope. Scare bar = 150 μm; E and F: Snail 1, N-cadherin, Snail 2, and Vimentin protein levels were analyzed using Western blot. GAPDH was a loading control. Data shown are the mean ± SEM. Student’s t test was used to analyze significant differences, ^cP < 0.001 vs shCtrl. shCtrl: Negative control cells; shNFE2L3: Nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 3 short hairpin RNA.