Figure 7.

STAT3/C/EBPβ signaling pathway regulates the expression of COX2 in HCC cells. Schematic illustrating the STAT3 binding sites at the promoter of C/EBPβ (A) and the C/EBPβ binding sites at the promoter of COX2 (B). (C) Luciferase reporter assay was applied to verify the targeted binding effect between STAT3 and C/EBPβ. **P < 0.01. (D) Luciferase reporter assay was applied to verify the targeted binding effect between C/EBPβ and COX2. **P < 0.01. (E) qRT-PCR analysis of STAT3 expression following transfected HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells with STAT3-siRNA1-3. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. (F) qRT-PCR analysis of C/EBPβ expression following transfected HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells with STAT3-siRNA1-3. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. (G) qRT-PCR analysis of COX2 expression following transfected HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells with STAT3-siRNA1-3. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01