Fig. 6

HOXD3 mediates Integrin β3 expression by activating Integrin β3 transcription. a A positive correlation between HOXD3 and Integrin β3 expression was found in the TCGA cohort. b–c The expression of both integrin β3 b mRNA and c protein was significantly up-regulated after HOXD3 ectopic overexpression in SW620 cells, while the expression of integrin β3 was reduced when HOXD3 knockdown was mediated by a siRNA. d ChIP assays were performed in HOXD-AS1 overexpressed(SW620-HOXD-AS1)and control cells using anti-HOXD3- antibodies or IgG antibodies, respectively. e The enrichments of HOXD3 of the region upstream of the Integrin β3 gene were examined by real-time PCR. f-g Dual-luciferase report showed that HOXD3 activated Integrin β3 transcription both in f SW620 and g 293 T cells. h Western blot was performed to detect HOXD3, Integrin β3, ERK, p-ERK, AKT and p-AKT expression in SW620-HOXD-AS1, SW620-HOXD-AS1 + HOXD3, SW620-si-Integrin β3 and control cells. i Western blot was performed to detect HOXD3, Integrin β3, ERK, p-ERK, AKT and p-AKT expression in paired CRC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. j A proposed model for illustrating the function and mechanism of HOXD-AS1 in CRC growth and metastasis. For b, e, f and g, data were expressed as means ± SD in three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01