Fig. 3: PIM2 overexpression enhanced HCC cells’ ability to tolerate chemotherapy.

a Forty-eight hour after the treatment of Cisplatin or 5-FU at indicated concentrations, cell viability of empty vector-transduced or PIM2-transduced QSG7703 cells was detected by XTT assay. b Cell viability of Cisplatin and 5-FU treated empty vector-transduced or PIM2-transduced BEL7402 cells detected by XTT assay. c Apoptosis induced by Cisplatin (2 µg/ml) and 5-FU (50 µg/ml) was compared between 7703-VEC and 7703-PIM2 cells by flow cytometry analysis. Annexin-V staining positive cells were counted as apoptotic cells. d Activation of apoptosis-associated proteins (cleaved PARP, Caspase 9, Caspase 8, and Caspase 3) in 7703-VEC and 7703-PIM2 cells was analyzed by Western Blot after treatment with different concentrations of Cisplatin for 48 h. β-actin was used as a loading control. e Forty-eight hour after the treatment of Cisplatin or 5-FU at indicated concentrations, cell viability of shGFP-transduced or shPIM2-transduced PLC8024 cells was detected by XTT cell viability assay. f Cell viability of Cisplatin and 5-FU treated shGFP-transduced or shPIM2-transduced Huh7 cells was detected by XTT cell viability assay. Results are presented as mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, independent Student’s t test.