Figure 8  Activation of canonical Wnt signaling induces lox-1 expression in activated HSCs, which is dose-dependently eliminated by curcumin
(A). HSCs were transiently transfected with pLOX-1-Luc and subsequently treated with Wnt3a at indicated concentrations in serum-free medium for 24 hr. *P< 0.05 vs. cells with no treatment (the first column). Luciferase activities were expressed as relative units after β-galactosidase normalization (means ± s.d.) (n=6). The floating schema denoted pLOX-1-Luc in use and the application of Wnt3a to the system. (B) and (C). Western blotting analyses of LOX-1 in HSCs treated with Wnt3a at indicated concentrations in the absence (B) or presence (C) of curcumin at various concentrations in serum-depleted media for 24 hr. β-actin was used as an internal control for equal protein loading. Representative was from three independent experiments. Italic numbers beneath the blot were fold changes in the densities of the bands compared to the control without treatment in the blot (n=3), after normalization with β-actin. Because of the limited space, standard deviations were not presented.