PINX1 and colorectal carcinoma: To determine whether PinX1 promotes CRC cell proliferation, we generated PinX1 knockdown cell lines using short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in RKO, HCT116, LoVo, SW480, SW620 and DLD1 cells, which exhibit relatively high PinX1 expression (Fig. 1G) and observed that PinX1 deficiency significantly impaired the colony formation ability (Fig. 1H), cell migration (Figs. 1I and S1A) and cell proliferation rates (Figs. 1, J and K and S1B).