Fig. 3

circ-DONSON regulates GC cell malignant behaviors through activating SOX4. a qRT-PCR analysis of indicated gene expression in BGC-823 and AGS cells after circ-DONSON depletion. b Western blotting result showed that circ-DONSON silencing suppressed SOX4 expression in BGC-823 and AGS cells. c ChIP assay was performed to measure the association of circ-DONSON with SOX4 promoter. d Pulldown assay showed that biotin-labeled SOX4 promoter region precipitated circ-DONSON in BGC-823 and AGS cell lysates. e DNA-FISH assay indicated the co-localization between circ-DONSON and SOX4 promoter in BGC-823 and AGS cells. Scale bar: 5 μm. f ChIP assay showed that circ-DONSON silencing led to decreased enrichment of active marker H3K27ac on SOX4 promoter in BGC-823 and AGS cells. g SOX4 promoter was more resistant to DNaseI digestion after circ-DONSON knockdown. h-j CCK8, EdU and colony formation assays were performed to detect cell proliferation. k Restoration of SOX4 reduced the apoptosis of BGC-823 and AGS cells induced by circ-DONSON silencing. l, m Restoration of SOX4 rescued the abilities of migration and invasion in circ-DONSON knocked down BGC-823 and AGS cells. **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001