Fig. 4

Silencing of IFITM3 diminishes stemness of GC and impairs proliferation and chemoresistance to 5’FU and cisplatin. A Knockdown of IFITM3 was conducted in IFITM3 high-expressing TSGH cells to assess its impact on sphere formation rate (Left panel, scale bar, 500 μm; right panel is the statistical results, **p < 0.01). B Serial passaging on sphere formation was utilized to determine self-renewal abilities of IFITM3-silenced cells of TSGH cells (**p < 0.01). C IFITM3, SOX-2 and CD44 protein expressions were determined by western blots in non-sphere cells and spheres formed from TSGH cells with or without IFITM3 knockdown (**p < 0.01). Cell growth curves (D) or migration rates (E) were determined from measurements on viable or migrated cells from non-spheres or spheres that had been treated with shCon or shIFITM3 (**p < 0.01). F Chemoresistance of the indicated groups were determined based on relative number of cells survived after treatment with 5’FU (20 μg/ml) or cisplatin (3 μM) for 72 h (**p < 0.01)