Fig. 3

SHOX2 directly activates WASF3 gene transcription. (a) The positive correlation between the expression of SHOX2 and three WASF genes illustrated in scatter plot from the TCGA breast cancer cohort. (b) The effect of SHOX2 overexpression on WASF gene expression in T47D cells determined by QRT-PCR. (c, d) The effect of SHOX2 gene manipulations on WASF3 expression in T47D (c) and MDA-MB-231 (d) cells determined by Western blot. (e) The protein levels of WASF3 in xenograft breast tumors derived from SHOX2 knockdown and the knockdown control MDA-MB-231 cell. Representative images and quantitative data (n = 5 mice/group) are shown in the left and right panels, respectively. (f, g) The effect of SHOX2 gene manipulations on the luciferase activity in T47D (f) and MDA-MB-231 (g) cells transfected with the constructs harboring different lengths of the WASF3 promoters. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01