Fig. 5

CARM1 potentiates the G1-S transition of the cell cycle and inhibits the apoptosis of GC cells by inducing autophagy. HGC27 cells transfected with si-CARM1 were treated with rapamycin (50 nM, 24 h), and BGC823 cells transduced with overexpression and control lentiviruses were treated with HCQ (25 μM, 24 h) before analysis by flow cytometry. A and B Distribution of cells in different cell cycle phases determined by flow cytometry is shown for the indicated cells. CARM1 overexpression promoted while CARM1 knockdown attenuated the G1-to-S transition of GC cells. However, the effects could be reversed by the autophagy activator rapamycin and the autophagy inhibitor HCQ. C and D Representative images showing the percentage of cells undergoing apoptosis from three dependent experiments. Treatment with rapamycin partially reversed the increase in apoptosis in CARM1-knockdown HGC27 cells (left panel), and HCQ recovered the decrease in apoptosis in CARM1-overexpressing cells to some extent (right panel). Bars represent the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. *Represents *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001