Fig. 5

let-7a levels are inversely correlated with STAT3 transcripts. a. Representative photograph showing amplification of STAT3 transcript levels in cDNA of indicated tissue types by RT-PCR (upper panel). GAPDH RT-PCR of respective cDNA was used as input control (lower panel). M: ΦX 174 Hae III-digested molecular weight marker; Positive control (P), Negative control (N), Normal, LSIL, HSIL and Cancer (C1, C2) cervical tissue biopsies. Normalized fold difference in expression of the bands in each tissue type was determined by densitometry as described in Methods in 3 independent experiments. b. Distribution of let-7a levels (Mean ± SE) in cervical tissues from pre-cancer and cancer lesions with corresponding STAT3 transcript levels. Relative normalized STAT3 mRNA levels were broadly classified into low or high groups based on median fold difference in STAT3 mRNA levels in each disease group. STAT3 mRNA median values were LSIL – 0.65; HSIL – 0.8; Cancer – 1.2. *p value <0.05; ***p value <0.001