Fig. 3

CircHERC4 acted as an oncogene and regulated proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo. a Basic expression of circHERC4 in HCoEpiC, HCT116, DLD-1, HT29, LoVo and SW480 cell lines, **, P < 0.01, ***, P < 0.001. b The siRNA was designed to target the back-splice junction site of circHERC4. c After the transfection of siRNA of circHERC4, qPCR was used to detect expression of circHERC4, ***, P < 0.001. The expression of HERC4 mRNA was not affected by siRNA of circHERC4. d CCK8 assays showed that knockdown of circHERC4 induced the repression of viability of DLD-1 and HCT116 cells. e Colony formation assays revealed that silencing of circHERC4 could inhibit the proliferation ability in DLD-1 and HCT116 cells, ***, P < 0.001. f Transwell assays demonstrated that migration and invasion abilities of DLD-1 and HCT116 were impaired by siRNA of circHERC4, **, P < 0.01, ***, P < 0.001. g qPCR was performed to detect circHERC4 after overexpression of circHERC4 in SW480 cells, ***, P < 0.001. h CCK8 assays showed that overexpression of circHERC4 upregulated viability of SW480 cells. i Colony formation assays revealed that overexpression of circHERC4 could promote the proliferation ability in SW480 cells, ***, P < 0.001. j Migration and invasion abilities of SW480 were enhanced by overexpression of circHERC4, ***, P < 0.001. k Images of xenografts tumor (six mice per group) in nude mice. l, m Comparison of the tumor weight and volume in sh-circHERC4-1, sh-circHERC4-2 and sh-NC HCT116 group, ***, P < 0.001. n Images and statistics of visible nodules on the lung and liver surface. o Representative images and HE staining of lung and liver harvested from the tail vein injection group showed that incidence and area of metastasis nodules in experimental groups was significantly lower than negative control group, ***, P < 0.001