The cells were serum starved for 24 hours prior to treatment with recombinant human HGF (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) to a concentration of 50 ng/ml for 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes. Preparation of Nuclear and Cytoplasmic proteins extracts Nuclear and cytoplasmic protein fractions were isolated from the cell lines at the timepoints indicated with the CelLytic™ NuCLEAR™ Extraction kit (Sigma®, Missouri, USA). The lysate protein concentrations were determined by bicinchoninic acid protein assay using BSA as a standard (Pierce, Rockford, IL, USA). Aliquots of the samples were stored at -80°C until use. RNA extraction from cell lines Total RNA was extracted from the HuH-6

and Huh-7 cell lines using the PARIS™ Protein and RNA Isolation kit (Ambion) and CTNNB1 mutation detection was carried out as outlined above for the two cell lines. Gel Electrophoresis Sapanisertib cost and Western

Blotting Approximately 20 μg of protein sample were run on NuPAGE 4-12% BisTris gels (Invitrogen) with MES-SDS buffer (Invitrogen) using the Xcell SureLock™ Mini-Cell (Invitrogen). The protein marker used was Precision Plus Protein™ Standards (BioRad). The iBlot Gel Transfer Device (Invitrogen) was used for western blotting of proteins. The filters were probed with anti-Y654 β-catenin (Abcam, 1:150) and anti-β-catenin (Abcam, 1:1000). The filters were stripped with a mild stripping buffer containing 1.5% glycine, 0.1% SDS and reprobed after each blot. The immunoblots were incubated for 1 hour with the appropriate secondary antibodies coupled to horseradish peroxidase followed by GDC 0032 ic50 exposure to ECL plus chemiluminescence Epacadostat reagents (GE Healthcare Biosciences, Piscataway, NJ, USA) and autoradiography. Immunoblotting with anti-TBP Y-27632 2HCl for

nuclear proteins and anti-β-actin for cytoplasmic extract was used to confirm equal loading. Statistical Analysis Results were analysed with StatView software (Abacus Concepts Inc., USA). Statistical comparisons were made using Pearson’s Chi-squared test with Yates’ continuity correction data. A P-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Aberrant β-catenin expression in hepatoblastoma We examined total β-catenin protein expression on a HB tissue array using IHC. A total of 87% (85/98) of tumours in our clinical cohort showed aberrant expression of β-catenin in the nucleus and cytoplasm (38/98) or in the cytoplasm alone (47/98) (Figure 1a and 1b). Normal membranous staining alone was observed in seven cases and the remaining six tumours were completely negative for total β-catenin staining. Samples of adjacent normal tissue had a normal membranous β-catenin staining pattern in 46/48 cases available for examination (Figure 1c). The remaining two normal samples showed focal cytoplasmic staining. These results are similar to those published previously in HB studies [18, 35, 36]. However the frequency of mutations in the CTNNB1 gene varies widely in studies of HB, from 13% to 70% [19, 37].