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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Feb 25.
Published in final edited form as: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007 Nov;1116:82–99. doi: 10.1196/annals.1402.082

FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 3

β-catenin inhibits TGF-β signaling in chondrocytes while the induction of β-catenin by TGF-β is enhanced in Axin2-deficient chondrocytes. (A) Chondrocyte C5.18 cells were transfected with TGF-β responsive reporter, p3TP-Lux in the presence or absence of cotransfections with Smad3 and/or β-catenin and treated with or without TGF-β (5 ng/mL) for 48 h. Transfection of β-catenin significantly inhibited TGF-β or TGF-β+Smad3-induced p3TP-Lux reporter activity (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01). (B) Protein lysates from TGF-β-treated primary chondrocytes from WT and Axin2−/− mice were assayed for β-catenin by Western blot. TGF-β treatment enhances β-catenin accumulation in both WT and Axin2−/− cells. However, the elevated levels of β-catenin persist in Axin2 −/− cells.