Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 19 pp 19233—19253
CircRNA CDR1as promotes hepatoblastoma proliferation and stemness by acting as a miR-7-5p sponge to upregulate KLF4 expression
KLF4 affects the proliferation and stemness abilities of HB cells. (A) qRT-PCR analysis of KLF4 mRNA in HB cells that were treated with siRNAs; (B–D) The cell proliferative ability was assessed by the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation assay, and EdU assay after KLF4 was knocked down in HepG2 and HUH6 cells; (E) The stemness of cancer stem cells (CSCs) was assessed by the sphere-forming assay after KLF4 was knocked down in HepG2 and HUH6 cells; (F) The proportion of CD133+ cells was determined by flow cytometric analysis after KLF4 knockdown. Scale bar, 200 μm. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three experiments. *P < 0.05,**P < 0.01,***P < 0.001 (Student’s t-test).