5.

Effects of EL on CD44 and MAPK-p38 expression at the mRNA and protein levels. (A) Increased protein expression of CD44 after transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) stimulation (10 ng/mL), and decreased CD44 expression with 25, 50, and 75 μM of EL treatments, indicated by median fluorescence intensity and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI). (B) Representative histograms of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis indicating changes in CD44 expression in terms of MFI and median fluorescence intensity after EL treatment. (C) Increased gene expression of CD44 after TGF-β stimulation, and dose-dependent reduction in CD44 gene expression when concentrations of 25, 50, and 75 μM EL were used. (D) Increased gene expression of MAPK-p38 after TGF-β stimulation, and decreased MAPK-p38 gene expression with 25, 50, and 75 μM of EL treatments, in a dose dependent manner. (E) Increased protein expression of MAPK-p38 after TGF-β stimulation, and decreased MAPK-p38 protein expression with 25, 50, and 75 μM of EL treatments. (F) Representative Western blot results for the MAPK-p38 protein derived from cells treated with TGF-β (10 ng/mL) alone or combined with EL (25, 50, 75 μM). The full-length Western blot gel images are shown in supplementary files. Values are represented as mean ± SEM of three independent experiments (n = 3), with *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, and ***P ≤ 0.001 indicating statistical significance.