Fig. 4

SMC3 is upregulated in HCC and contributes to HCC proliferation. A mRNA expression of SMC3 in 374 HCC tissues and 50 non-cancerous tissues in the TCGA LIHC database (left). mRNA expression of SMC3 in 50 pairs of HCC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues in the TCGA LIHC database (right). B Representative IHC staining images of high and low SMC3 expression in 201 HCC tissue samples, including 110 cases of high expression and 91 cases of low expression based on the IHC staining score; scale bars, 200 μm. C Kaplan-Meier analysis showing the overall survival of 186 patients with HCC with high-SMC3 and low-SMC3 expression; HR, Hazard Ratio, P = 0.00016. D CCK8 assay for MHCC-97H and HCC-LY10 cells with SMC3 knockdown and control. E Colony formation assay of MHCC-97H and HCC-LY10 cells with SMC3 knockdown and control. F Flow cytometry analysis of the cell cycle of MHCC-97H and HCC-LY10 cells with SMC3 knockdown and control (left). Quantitation histograms showing the percentage of cells in different phases of the cell cycle (right panel). G Flow cytometry analysis of apoptosis in MHCC-97H cells with SMC3-knockdown and control cells (left). Quantitation histogram showing the percentage of apoptotic cells (right). H Representative immunofluorescence staining images of α-tubulin (red) and DAPI (blue) showing spindle morphology during mitosis in MHCC-97H cells with SMC3 knockdown and control(left). The quantitation histogram showing the percentage of cells with multispindle polar (right). Cells were enriched in mitosis using nocodazole. Scale bars, 20 μm. I Representative immunofluorescence staining images of α-tubulin (red) and DAPI (blue) show nucleus morphology in MHCC-97H cells with SMC3 knockdown and control (left). The quantitation histogram showing the percentage of cells with multinuclear (right). Scale bars, 20 μm. Data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001. The P values were calculated by paired Student’s t-test in (A), log-rank test in (C), and unpaired Student’s t-test in (D-I)