Fig. 1

Depletion of USP7 retarded cell proliferation by inducing G2/M cell cycle arrest and chromosome misalignment in mitosis. a and b DU145 or VCaP cells stably expressing USP7 or control shRNA were generated. The same number of cells were seeded and the colonies formed were counted 14 days later. The knockdown efficiency of USP7 was tested by western blot. c The growth of DU145 or VCaP cells stably expressing USP7 or control shRNA were compared every day after cell seeding. Standard deviation bars were obtained from triplicate repeats. d The cell cycle distribution of DU145 or VCaP cells expressing USP7 or control siRNA were analyzed by flow cytometry. Standard deviation bars were obtained from three independent experiments. e In DU145 or VCaP cells expressing USP7 or control siRNA, spindles were stained with immunofluorescent α-tubulin antibody and nuclear DNA were stained with DAPI. The number of cells with misaligned chromosomes were quantified (scale bar, 10 μM)