(PBS, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA),
the cells were lysed by a lysis buffer that contained
0.01 M Tris, pH=7.5, 0.1 M NaCl, 1% Triton
X-100, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, and 0.1% sodium
dodecyl sulfate (SDS), with added protease
inhibitors (all purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, St.
Louis, MO, USA). Total proteins in cell lysates
were separated by 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis (PAGE, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis,
MO, USA) and transferred to a polyvinylidene
fluoride blotting membrane (PVDF, Sigma-Aldrich,
St. Louis, MO, USA). The membranes were
blocked in blocking bovine serum albumin solution
(BSA, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA)
and incubated with mouse anti-VEGF monoclonal
antibody (1:200), mouse anti-BCL-2 monoclonal
antibody (1:500) and mouse anti-SURVIVINmonoclonal antibody (1:500) (all purchased from
Abcam, Cambridge, England, UK) for one hour at
room temperature. After washing, the membranes
were incubated for 45 minutes with horseradish
peroxidase (HRP) -linked goat anti-mouse IgG
(1:5000, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA).
The protein bands were visualized by enhanced
chemiluminescence (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis,
MO, USA). Mouse monoclonal Ab against β-actin
(Abcam, Cambridge, England, UK) was used as a
housekeeping gene control. Band intensities were
semi-quantitatively analyzed by Image J densitometer
(NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA).