Fig. 7

Inhibiting YAP activity or reducing YAP expression can partially counteract the effect of low MAST3. (A–D): In MCF-7 cell lines, shRNA/MAST3 was used to knockdown the expression of MAST3, YAP-TEAD binding inhibitor, verteporfin (12 h, 9.5 µM) and shRNA-YAP (72 h, 2.5 µg) were added to inhibit YAP activity or expression, respectively. Colony formation (A, C) and matrix gel invasion experiments (B, D) showed that verteporfin and YAP knockdown both counteract the enhanced malignant phenotype of tumor cells induced by knocking down MAST3. Scale bar: 100 μm. *: P < 0.05, ***: P < 0.001. E-F: Western blotting and RT-qPCR detection reveal that verteporfin and shYAP counteract the upregulation of target genes (CTGF and CYR61) induced by shMAST3, *: P < 0.05. GAPDH was used as a loading control. The yellow dashed line represents the reference line. Columns: mean numbers, Bars: SD, each experiment was performed triplicate. shRNA: short hairpin RNA; MAST3, Microtubule associated serine/threonine kinase-3; YAP: yes-associated protein; CTGF: connective tissue growth factor; CYR61: Cysteine-rich- 61; CCNE1: G1/S-specific cyclin-E1; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase