Figure 4

Western blot analysis of the expression of a number of proteins impacting proliferation and survival of ovarian cancer cells 48 hours after alteration of the Spry1 expression. Results indicate activation of apoptotic processes detected as overexpression of the pro-apoptotic Bax, decreased expression of the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl, attenuation of procaspases 3, 7, 8 and 9 and cleavage of PARP in the Spry1-transfected SKOV-3 cells (left). Moreover, reduced expression of the activated forms of ERK and AKT along with increased expression of PTEN with concomitant decrease of phospho-PTEN (right) implicates repression of ERK as well as of AKT, with involvement of PTEN for the latter, in Spry1-induced inhibition of cell proliferation and survival. No significant change in the expression pattern of these proteins was found in the Spry1-silenced 1A9 cells.