Fig. 4

KLF12 expression inversely correlates with miR-141 and exerts inhibitory effects on ovarian cancer tumorigenicity. a Representative pictures showing miR-141 expressions examined by ISH (dark blue staining) is inversely correlated with KLF12 expression detected by IHC (brown staining) in early and advanced ovarian cancers. (Magnification × 10; scale bar, 100 μm). b Overexpression of KLF12 in two ovarian cancer cells; OVCA433 and SKOV3 (Upper), significantly suppresses their cell growth rates (Day 3 vs Day 1) examined by XTT cell proliferation assay when compared the cell growth rate of their empty vector controls, VC. c Focus formation assay revealed that overexpression of KLF12 significantly inhibit the number of foci in OVCA433 and SKOV3 cultured in low serum medium for 14 days. d The soft agar assay showed that overexpression of KLF12 remarkably reduce the number and size of colonies formed in soft agar in OVCA433 and SKOV3 cells as compared with their empty vector controls. The above assays represent the error bars with mean ± SD of at least 3 independent experiments. e Western blot analysis revealed that three KLF12 stable clones were obtained from transfection of shRNAi of KLF12 in OVCA433. SC represents scrambled control. These results were obtained from at least three experiments. f XTT cell proliferation assay showed that there was a significant increase of cell growth rate in all three KLF12 knockdown clones as compared with the scramble control (SC). g The focus formation assay showed that there were two KLF12 knockdown clones (KD2 and KD4) had a significant increase in the number of foci