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Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 22 pp 9982—9999

Circular RNA hsa_circ_0000515 acts as a miR-326 sponge to promote cervical cancer progression through up-regulation of ELK1

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Figure 3. Silencing of hsa_circ_0000515 attenuates cell proliferation and invasion, and enhances apoptosis and autophagy in Hela and SiHa cells. (A) effect of three different siRNA sequences targeting hsa_circ_0000515 on its expression determined by RT-qPCR; (B) expression of hsa_linear_0000515 determined by RT-qPCR; (C) EdU-stained cells (200 ×) and proliferation of cervical cancer cells; (D) cells invaded through the membrane in a Transwell system (200 ×) and invasion ability of cervical cancer cells; (E) flow cytometric data showing cervical cancer cell apoptosis; (F) autophagosome formation observed by MDC staining (400 ×) and quantitative analysis of the autophagosome number; (G) mRNA and protein expression of proliferation-related gene (PCNA), apoptosis-related genes (Caspase3 and Caspase9), invasion-related genes (MMP-9 and TIMP-1) and autophagy-related genes (Beclin1, P62 and LC3-II/LC3-I) determined by RT-qPCR; (H and I) cellular protein expression of PCNA, Caspase3, Caspase9, MMP-9, TIMP-1, Beclin1, P62, LC3-I and LC3-II measured by Western blot assay. *p < 0.05 vs. the si-NC group (cervical cancer cells transfected with si-NC). Measurement data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Unpaired t test was used to compare data with normal distribution and equal variance between two groups. The cell experiment is repeated three times independently.