FIGURE 3.

Epidermal STAT3 knockout and its effects in SmoM2-mediated carcinogenesis. STAT3 knockout in epidermis was achieved through crossing K14cre⁺/R26-SmoM2^YFP+ mice with STAT3^f/f mice, followed by additional crossing among the F1 mice. Expression of STAT3 was examined by Western blotting (A) or immunohistochemistry (supplemental Fig. 2). The wild-type control in Western blotting was from K14cre⁻SmoM2^YFP+STAT3^f/f mice (A). B, typical H&E staining images from skin of K14cre⁺/SmoM2^YFP+/STAT3^wt (BCC) and K14cre⁺/SmoM2^YFP+STAT3^f/f (BCC-STAT3-ko) mice. C, data from the ImageJ analysis of epidermis thickness of the two genotypes described in B. D, the percentage of tumor areas in the skin tissue from mice with BCCs with or without epidermal STAT3 knockout. Five or more mice were used in each group. p < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.