Fig. 5

Knockdown of SLC39A6 inhibits cell growth and enhances cell apoptosis in vitro. a, b Eca-109 and EC9706 cells were transfected with either SLC39A6-siRNA or control siRNA after 72 h, the cells were collected, and total cellular protein was used for western blotting analysis with anti-SLC39A6 antibody as described. β-actin served as an internal control. c, d Silencing endogenous SLC39A6 inhibits cell growth as determined by MTT assays. e Silencing endogenous SLC39A6 inhibits cell growth as determined by colony formation assays. f The histograms indicate that the number of colonies formed by cells treated with SLC39A6 siRNA was far fewer than that of control siRNA-treated cells (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01). g, h Cell apoptosis was detected by Annexin-V/propidium iodide combined labeling flow cytometry in Eca-109 and EC9706 cells upon inhibition of SLC39A6 protein. Flow cytometry analysis shows a large increase in the percentage of cells programmed for apoptosis in Eca-109-siRNA and EC9706-siRNA cells comparing to the corresponding negative controls. i Statistics of the results in (g) and (h). *p < 0.05, versus scramble control (Student’s t test). Error bars represent mean ± SD from three independent experiments