Fig. 6: RhoB inhibits BLCA cell proliferation and metastasis.

a The mRNA level of RhoB in BLCA (n = 408) and normal tissues (n = 19) in TCGA-BLCA (RNA-seq data). b The mRNA expression level of RhoB in BLCA (n = 188) and normal tissues (n = 68) in the GSE13507 cohort (RNA-seq data). An MTT assay was performed to detect changes in the proliferation of BLCA UM-UC-3 (c) and T24 (d) cells with or without RhoB overexpression (n = 5). Representative images (e) and statistical analysis (f and g) of colony formation assays of UM-UC-3 and T24 cells with or without RhoB overexpression (n = 3). The scale bar is 200 μm. h Western blot analyses of EMT-related proteins in UM-UC-3, T24 and 5637 cells with or without RhoB overexpression. GAPDH was used as the loading control. i Detection of RhoB expression at the mRNA and protein levels in LV-NC cells and LV-RhoB-OE cells by qRT-PCR and western blotting. j Schematic representation of the mouse pulmonary metastasis model constructed using T24 LV-NC cells and T24 LV-RhoB-OE cells. Images of lung fluorescence after T24 LV-NC cells and T24 LV-RhoB-OE cells were injected into the tail veins of BALB/C-nude mice for 6 weeks (k), and the fluorescence intensity of the lung metastases was quantified (n = 3) (l). Images of dissected whole lungs (m) and representative images of H&E-stained mouse lung tissue sections (n); the scale bars are 4 mm and 100 μm. o Statistical analysis of the number of metastatic nodules in H&E-stained mouse lung tissue sections (n = 3). The n number represents n biologically independent experiments in each group. Statistical significance was ascertained by two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test (a–d, f, g, i, l, and o). The data are shown as the means ± SD.