Fig. 4: CDC37L1 reduced the anti-tumor effects of sorafenib in HCC in vitro and in vivo.

A The knockdown efficiency of CDC37L1 in three HCC cell lines via western blotting. B The overexpression of CDC37L1 was detected by western blot analysis in HCC cells as indicated. C CCK8 assay was used to detect cell viability in HCC-LM3 cells after knockdown of CDC37L1 under normal or sorafenib (7.5 μM) treatment condition (one-way ANOVA). D, E Colony formation capability of PLC/PRF/5 cells with downregulated CDC37L1 with or without sorafenib (7.5 μM) treatment (unpaired t test, two-tailed). F, G Cell apoptosis rate was evaluated by flow cytometric in PLC/PRF/5 and HCC-LM3 cells with CDC37L1 overexpression under normal or sorafenib treatment condition (unpaired t test, two-tailed). H Trypan blue staining was performed to study cell death rate in the presence of sorafenib when CDC37L1 was knocked down (unpaired t test, two-tailed). Huh7 and Focus cells were treated with 5 and 10 μM sorafenib. I Expression of apoptosis-related proteins (PARP and c-PARP) were assessed in CDC37L1 knockdown cells with or without sorafenib treatment. J, K Representative images of xenograft tumors formed in nude mice, and weight of tumors was measured after dissection (unpaired t test, two-tailed). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.