Fig. 5

PAK4 alleviated the effects of miR-9-5p on cell proliferation and apoptosis in CRC cells. HCT116 and SW1116 cells were transfected with miR-NC, miR-9-5p mimics or miR-9-5p mimics + PAK4 for 48 h. a Quantitative real-time PCR was used to determine miR-9-5p expression with U6 as internal control. b Western blot was used to determine the expression levels of PAK4 with GAPDH as a loading control. c MTT assay was utilized to determine the cell proliferation in different groups on consecutive 5 days. d Cell apoptosis levels were determined using flow cytometry. Representative images of double Annexin V/PI staining are shown in the left panel and a statistical analysis of early and late apoptotic cells is shown in the right panel. e The protein levels of Bad and Bcl-2 were detected using western blotting in both HCT116 and SW1116 cells. All data are expressed as the means ± SD. ***p < 0.001, compared with the miR-NC group; ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001, compared with the miR-9-5p mimics group