Total protein from cultured cells was extracted with RIPA buffer containing protease and phosphatase inhibitors. Equal amounts of protein were subjected to Western blotting as described previously.4 (link),22 (link),23 (link) The primary antibodies used were as follows: anti-THAP7 was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, anti-p21 was obtained from Cell Signalling Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA), and anti-GAPDH was purchased from Bioworld Company (Nanjing, China).