Fig. 3

CircNHSL1 promotes the progression of gastric cancer via SIX1. a CircRNA microarray between 3 gastric cancer tissues without metastasis and 2 gastric cancer tissues with metastasis. b and c Relative expression of 10 mRNA candidates was detected by qRT-PCR in gastric cancer cells after transfection of si-circNHSL1, pEX-3-circNHSL1 or negative control. d Relative luciferase activities were detected in gastric cancer cells after transfecting luciferase reporter plasmid with wild type of SIX1 mRNA 3′-UTR with si-circNHSL1, pEX-3-circNHSL1 or negative control. e and f The effects of cicrNHSL1 and SIX1 on the mRNA and protein expressions of SIX1 and Vimentin were detected by qRT-PCR and western blotting. g Pearson correlation analysis determined the significantly positive correlation between the levels of circNHSL1 and SIX1 in 61 paired gastric cancer tissues (p < 0.01). h The level of SIX1 was higher in tissues with high circNHSL1 expression than with low circNHSL1 expression (p < 0.01). i and j The effects of cicrNHSL1 and SIX1 on the mobility, migration and invasion were confirmed by wound healing and transwell assays. All data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three experiments. **p < 0.01