Fig. 4

Verteporfin inhibits YAP expression and activity as well as ROCK2 expression. a Western blot analysis of YAP in untreated (CTRL) or verteporfin-treated U-2OS cells. GAPDH was used as a loading control. b Dose- and time-dependent qPCR analysis of the expression of CYR61, CTGF and CCND1, conventional YAP downstream targets, in U-2OS parental cells. Data are shown as 2-^ΔΔCt. Data are presented as the mean ± SE of three separate experiments (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, Student’s t test). GAPDH was used as a housekeeping gene. c Western blot analysis of ROCK2 in untreated (CTRL) or verteporfin-treated U-2OS cells. GAPDH was used as a loading control. d Expression of ROCK2 by immunofluorescence in U-2OS cells treated with verteporfin for 24–48 h. Digital images were taken under identical conditions using the image analysis software NIS-Elements (Nikon Italia). Scale bar, 20 μm