Figure 6: Upregulation of AK023948 in breast cancer and promotion of tumorigenesis.

(a) Detection of AK023948 in the OriGene breast cancer tissue cDNA array by qPCR. (b) AK023948 is upregulated in breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) as compared with non-malignant breast cells (MCF-10A and HMLE). (c) AK023948 KO suppresses cell proliferation of MCF-7, as detected by MTT assay. (d) AK023948 KO promotes apoptosis. Cells were seeded in slide chambers, and treated with H₂O₂ at 0.8 mM for 4 h before TUNEL assay. Apoptotic cells were counted from three different fields, and apoptotic cell ratio was calculated against total cells. (e) Tumour growth for vector control and AK0 KO#13 in nude mice. (f) Expression of AK023948 in breast cancer TMAs, as detected by ISH. Scale bar, 100 μm. Bottom: quantitative analysis of AK023948 expression based on the results from f. (g) Upregulation of DHX9 expression is associated with poor patient survival. About 20.9% (229 of 1091 cases analysed) are positive for DHX9 using the Onco Query Language (OQL; EXP>1.5). Values in b,c are s.e.m. (n=3). **P<0.01 by two-tailed Student’s t-test.