Cell growth assays

Cell growth was assessed using a Cell Counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation assays (27). For CCK-8 assay, the TE-1 and Eca-109 cells were seeded at 2×10³ cells/well into 96-well plates. After being incubated for 24, 48, or 72 at 37°C, 10 µl CCK-8 solution (Dojindo Laboratories, Inc.) were added to each well. The optical density values at 450 nm were measured with an enzyme-linked immune detector to indicate cell viability. EdU incorporation assay was performed using the Cell-Light™ EdU Apollo^® 643 In Vitro Imaging kit (Guangzhou RiboBio Co., Ltd.) following the manufacturer's instructions. The results were detected using a Zeiss photomicroscope (Carl Zeiss AG) and counting was performed based on at least 10 random visual fields.