Figure 4

Effects of Notch1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) on the proliferation of SAS cells. (a) SAS cells were transfected with either control or Notch1-specific siRNA for the indicated periods and then examined for viability using a WST assay. Notch1 siRNA-treated SAS cells exhibited significant reductions in cell proliferation compared with the cells treated with negative control siRNA. The Y axis shows the changes in absorbance at 450 nm; bars±s.d. of three individual experiments. *P<0.05, analyzed by Student’s t-test. (b) Images of SAS cells through the microscope under each condition. The number of cells was significantly decreased under Notch1-specific siRNA-treated conditions. Original magnification, × 100. (c) Western blotting of Notch1 signaling-related proteins 48 h after transfection. Note the decreased expressions of Notch1, Notch1 and intracellular Notch domain (NICD), phosphorylated histone H3 (p-H3) and phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT) in the Notch1 siRNA-treated cells. The expression of β-actin was used as an internal control. The experiment was performed in triplicate. OD, optical density; Hes, hairly enhancer of split.