Fig. 3: β-catenin is overexpressed in fibrotic liver tissues and miR-139-5p upregulation suppresses β-catenin expression.

A The mRNA expression level of β-catenin was upregulated in human fibrotic liver tissues. n = 30/group. B The sections of human liver tissues were treated with Masson staining, Sirius red staining and Immunohistochemical staining of β-catenin. n = 6/group, original magnification×200. C The protein levels of β-catenin in normal or fibrotic liver tissues from patients were examined by western blotting. Representative of three experiments. D The correlation between the expression levels of β-catenin and miR-139-5p in patient fibrotic liver tissues was evaluated with Pearson’s correlation analysis, n = 30. E The protein levels of β-catenin, α-SMA, Collagen-I, and TIMP-1 in LX-2 cells infected with miR-139-5p mimics were detected by western blotting. Representative of three experiments. F Immunofluorescence staining for α-SMA (green) in LX-2 cells transfected with miR-139-5p mimics was analyzed by confocal laser microscopy. DAPI was used to stain nuclei, blue. Original magnification×400, Representative of three experiments. G The cell-cycle distribution of LX-2 cells infected with miR-139-5p mimics was analyzed by flow cytometry. Representative of three experiments. H Proliferation of LX-2 cells infected with miR-139-5p mimics was analyzed by CCK8 assay. I The cell apoptosis of LX-2 cells infected with miR-139-5p mimics was analyzed by flow cytometry. Representative of three experiments. Graph represents mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.