Fig. 6

miR-500a-3p promotes stem cell properties via STAT3 signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma. a STAT3 inhibitors Stattic (5 μM) and S3I-201 (100 μM) showed potent inhibition of the STAT3 reporter activity in the indicated cells. Error bars represent the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. b Sphere formation assay showed the sphere formation ability of the indicated cells under treatment of the inhibitors Stattic and S3I-201. Error bars represent the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. c Real-time PCR analysis of the expression of NANOG, BMI-1, OCT4 and SOX2 under treatment of the inhibitors Stattic and S3I-201. GAPDH was used as the loading control. Error bars represent the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001