Fig. 7

β-Catenin was involved in spermine-induced STT3A expression at transcriptional level. A, B Effects of β-catenin knockdown on spermine-induced STT3A mRNA (A) and protein (B) expression in SNU-368 cells. 24 h after two specific siRNA transfection, cells were incubated in the presence or absence of spermine (200 µM) for 24 h. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA, n = 5 independent experiments per group. C, D The expression of STT3A mRNA (C) and protein (D) in SNU-368 cells expressing WT β-catenin for 24 h. ***p < 0.001, two-tailed unpaired t test, n = 4 independent experiments per group. E, F Effects of pretreatment with NPS2134 (10 µM), BAPTA-AM (10 µM), MK2206 (10 µM) on the spermine-induced STT3A mRNA I and protein (F) expression in SNU-368 cells after incubation with spermine for 24 h. Veh: Vehicle; NPS: NPS2134; BAP: BAPTA-AM; MK: MK2206. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA, n = 5 independent experiments per group. G Effects of pretreatment with NPS2134 (10 µM), BAPTA-AM (10 µM), MK2206 (10 µM) on the amounts of β-catenin recruited to the STT3 promoter regions in SNU-368 cells treated with spermine (200 µM) for 24 h. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, one-way ANOVA, n = 4 independent experiments per group. H IHC staining of β-catenin and STT3A in 24 human HCC specimens. Scale bar, 50 μm. I Spearman correlation analysis of β-catenin and STT3A IHC scores. Note that the scores of some samples overlap