Autocrine STAT3 activation in HPV positive cervical cancer through a virus-driven Rac1—NFκB—IL-6 signalling axis
Fig 2
A secreted factor from HPV+ cervical cancer cells can induce STAT3 phosphorylation in HPV- cervical cancer cells.
C33A cells were serum starved for 24 hours and conditioned media from A) HeLa or B) CaSKi cells was added for the indicated time points. For the control, C33A conditioned media was added to cells for 2 hours. Western blots show cell lysates analysed for the expression of phosphorylated and total STAT3. GAPDH served as a loading control. Data are representative of at least three biological independent repeats. C) C33A cells were serum starved for 24 hours and incubated with conditioned media from HeLa or CaSKi cells for 2 hours. For the control, C33A conditioned media was added to cells for 2 hours. Cells were analysed by immunofluorescence staining for total STAT3 (green) and counterstained with DAPI to highlight the nuclei (blue in the merged panels). Scale bar 20 μm. D) Scatter dot plot of percentage nuclear STAT3 from C). Data represents the percentage nuclear localisation of STAT3 from 15 cells from three independent experiments. Nuclear localisation was calculated using ImageJ [92].