Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 1 pp 537—554

SNRPB-mediated RNA splicing drives tumor cell proliferation and stemness in hepatocellular carcinoma

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Figure 5. SNRPB activates the Akt pathway and glycolysis via alternative splicing regulation. (A) Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis (biological process) of SNRPB using the Coexpedia internet tool (http://www.coexpedia.org/) based on public GEO datasets. (B) Module plot indicates five major types of alternative splicing in Hep3B cells transfected with scramble, shSNRPB and SNRPB-rescue (upper panel). Pie chart shows the upregulation or downregulation of five alternative splicing events (lower panel). (C) The heatmap shows the genes associated with carbon metabolism with alternative splicing in Hep3B cells after SNRPB knockdown or rescue. (D) The levels of Akt3, pan-Akt and p-Akt in Hep3B cells transfected with scramble, shSNRPB and SNRPB-rescue were detected by western blotting, and β-actin served as the loading control. (E) Some specific altered transcripts were confirmed by RT-PCR in Hep3B cells transfected with scramble, shSNRPB and SNRPB-rescue. The gene expression bands were quantified with ImageJ software (https://imagej.net/). (F) Glucose consumption and lactate secretion were decreased by SNRPB silencing but could be recovered by rescue of SNRPB. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.