Fig. 3

Real-time PCR analysis of three cancer-associated genes after treating the cells with N-MT and MT in Huh-7 and HepG2 cells. Huh-7 cells were treated with 2 and 1.5 µg/mL N-MT and MT for 24h and 48h, respectively. HepG2 cells were treated with 2.3 and 3.1 µg/mL N-MT and MT for 24h and 48h, respectively. A, B miR-155-3p, C, D PHLDA1, E, F SOCS2. The mRNA expression of the cancer-related genes was evaluated by the optimized real-time PCR method at 24h and 48h after treatment. The results are presented as the mean mRNA expression fold changes compared to the untreated. The analyses indicated that N-MT caused PHLDA1 and SOCS2 mRNA level upregulation, while miR-155-3p gene expression decreased in both cell lines compared to the untreated cells. ∗ P < 0.05, ∗  ∗ P < 0.01, ∗  ∗  ∗ P < 0.001, ∗  ∗  ∗  ∗ P < 0.0001, ns: non-significant