To determine potential effects of YAP knockdown on the former of these cellular functions in ccRCC, replating efficiency assays were performed using single cell suspensions. Of note, the ability of ACHN-YAP-shRNA#4 cells to form colonies from single cells in this setting was significantly reduced compared to mock-transduced ACHN controls (mean reduction of colony counts by 66.3 ± 0.05%, n = 6, P <

.0001; Figure 4A). Of interest, the colonies formed by YAP knockdown cells were not only less numerous but also smaller in size, reflecting reduced in vitro net cell growth as already observed previously in MTS assays. Anchorage-independent growth and colony formation in soft agar is a widely accepted in vitro surrogate phenotype for malignant transformation. YAP knockdown potently and reproducibly abrogated anchorage-independent growth of ACHN cells in soft agar (reduction of colony counts by more than 90 ± 0.02%, n = MDV3100 nmr 6, P < .0001; Figure 4B). Similar to what was seen in replating assays, the remaining colonies formed by ACHN-YAP-shRNA mass clones were not only

sparse in number but also significantly smaller compared to their mock-transduced counterparts in this three-dimensional culture setting. On the basis of these encouraging in vitro data suggesting a dependency of ccRCC cells on signaling through the Hippo pathway for maintenance of a malignant phenotype, we next tried to assess the Vorinostat purchase in vivo relevance of this Pyruvate dehydrogenase finding using a subcutaneous xenograft model. Male athymic CD1nu/nu nude mice, 6 to 8 weeks of age, were injected subcutaneously with 2.5 × 106 ACHN-YAP-shRNA or ACHN mock cells into both flanks. Tumor volumes were assessed weekly using digital calipers starting 1 week after injection. Of note, xenograft growth of ACHN-YAP-shRNA cells was significantly delayed compared to ACHN mock controls (P = .0182; Figure 6, A, left panel, and B), while at the same time the overall body mass of xenograft-bearing mice was not significantly

altered between the two study arms ( Figure 6A, right panel). At 5 weeks after injection, mice were sacrificed, and tumors were harvested for histopathologic and immunohistochemical evaluation or snap-frozen for mRNA extraction and subsequent real-time RT-qPCR analysis, respectively. cDNA microarray analysis of MZ1774 YAPshRNA mass clones revealed 14 genes that were upregulated more than two-fold (Table 2) and another 42 genes that were downregulated by more than 50% compared to mock-transfected MZ1774 cells (Table 3). Of these, eight targets were picked for validation by real-time qPCR. All of those eight targets found to be downregulated by microarray analysis were confirmed to be downregulated using RT-qPCR, and CDH6 as an example of a target found to be overexpressed in the microarray analysis was also found to be upregulated using RT-qPCR (Figure 5A).