Figure 10.

Ectopic expression of mutant β-catenin induces high canonical Wnt activity in well-differentiated, but not in poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma cells. (a) Well-differentiated Huh7, and poorly differentiated SNU449 and SNU182 cell lines have been co-transfected with either pCI-neo-mutant β-catenin (S33Y) plasmid (S33Y-β-catenin +) or empty pCI-neo plasmid (S33Y-β-catenin -), and cellular β-catenin levels at post-transfection 48 h were tested by immunoblotting. Calnexin was used as a loading control. (b) Cell lines were treated as described, then pCI-neo-mutant β-catenin (S33Y)-transfected cells were subjected to TCF reporter assay. TCF activity denotes the ratio of signals detected with pGL3-OT (OT) and pGL3-OF (OF) plasmids, respectively. Assays in triplicate, error bars; SD. Co-transfections included pGL-OT or pGL-OF, in addition to pCI-neo plasmids in both (a) and (b).