Fig. 4

CircWSB1 promotes the proliferation of BC cells in vitro and in vivo. a Relative expression of circWSB1 in BC cell lines and normal breast epithelial cell MCF-10A was detected by qRT-PCR. b qRT-PCR analysis of circWSB1 expression in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells transfected with indicated siRNAs. c and d CCK-8 (c) and colony formation assays (d) were conducted in hypoxic MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells after circWSB1 depletion. e Heatmap of differentially expressed mRNAs after knockdown of circWSB1 in MCF-7 cells under hypoxia. f KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed mRNAs as per (e). g Western blot analyses of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells after depletion of circWSB1 with indicated antibodies. h and i Cell cycle progression (h) and apoptosis rate (i) of hypoxic MCF-7 and MDA-MB-453 cells transfected with indicated siRNAs were analyzed by flow cytometry. j Representative bioluminescence imaging of tumor-bearing mice inoculated with indicated stable MCF-7 cells. k Photograph of xenograft tumors removed from each nude mouse (n = 5). l Growth curves of xenograft tumors of each group of nude mice were minored and measured once a week. m Tumor weight was calculated. n IHC staining to analyze the level of Ki67 and p53 in xenograft tumors, scale bar, 100 μm. o Kaplan–Meier survival curves of the tumor-bearing mice (n = 10). Data are shown as mean ± SD and representative of three independent experiments in (a-d) and (g-i). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001