Fig. 1: Nur77 transcriptional activates the expression of lncRNA–WFDC21P.

a The scatter plot analysis of the lncRNA microarray data. LncRNAs that were differentially expressed (fold-change > 1.5) between control Huh7 cells and Huh7 cells overexpressing Nur77 are shown. b, c Nur77 promotes WFDC21P expression. Nur77 was overexpressed (b) or knocked down (c) in Huh7, HepG2, and PLC cells. WFDC21P expression levels were determined by RT-qPCR, and the protein levels of Nur77 were determined by western blotting. d Heat maps and correlation charts show the positive correlation between Nur77 and WFDC21P in L02 hepatocyte and eight HCC cell lines (Huh7, HepG2, BEL7402, SK-HEP-1, MHCC-97H, Hep3B, BEL7404, and MHCC-97L). The ΔCt values (normalized to β-actin) were subjected to Pearson’s correlation analysis or heat map diagraming. e Schematic diagram of the luciferase reporters of the WFDC21P promoter. f Nur77 enhances the activity of the WFDC21P promoter. A luciferase assay was performed in Huh7 cells. g, h Nur77 activates the transcriptional activity of the WFDC21P promoter in a NBRE-dependent manner, revealed by a luciferase assay in Huh7 cells. i Nur77 binds to the promoter of WFDC21P. ChIP assays were performed in Huh7 and HepG2 cells. The primers for the ChIP assays are indicated with arrows in e. GAPDH promoter amplification is used as a negative control. The data are represented as the means ± SEM of at least three independent experiments. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 and ns no significance.