Fig. 3: TRIB3 enhances SOX2 expression in BCCs.

a Histogram showing the expression of TRIB3 (far left) and stem cell-related genes in HMLE cells transfected with TRIB3-expressing vector vs. control vector and MCF7 cells transfected with TRIB3-shRNA1 vs. CTRL-shRNA. b, c Immunoblots and statistical analysis (n = 3) of protein lysates, as indicated on the left, transfected with a control vector or a TRIB3-expressing vector for HMLE cells (b) or with CTRL-shRNA, or TRIB3-shRNA for MCF7 cells (c). d Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue microarray sections of normal and breast cancer tissues were stained with an anti-SOX2 antibody. Tissue-bound SOX2 is shown in brown (top). A 3 × 2 contingency table shows the correlation between TRIB3 and SOX2 based on their relative expression, graded by the percentage and intensity of the brown color staining in the immunohistological images (bottom). e Overexpression of TRIB3 enhanced the SOX2 transcriptional activity in HMLE cells, as determined by a luciferase reporter assay. f Silencing TRIB3 inhibited the SOX2 transcription activity in MCF7 cells, as determined by a luciferase reporter assay. g, h Tumor spheroid formation ability of HMLE cells (g) transfected with a control vector or a TRIB3-expressing vector and either CTRL-shRNA or SOX2-shRNA (as indicated at the bottom) or of MCF7 cells (h) transfected with CTRL-shRNA or TRIB3-shRNA, and either a control vector or a SOX2-expressing vector. All data are shown as the number of mammospheres per 1000 cells. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three independent assays; P > 0.05 was considered not significant (NS); *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 compared with the vector or CTRL-shRNA group. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.