Figure 5From: Coupled down-regulation of mTOR and telomerase activity during fluorouracil-induced apoptosis of hepatocarcinoma Cells Rapamycin did not reduce hTERT transcription but reduced hTERT protein expression. (A) The effect of rapamycin on hTERT protein expression was detected by Western Blot. SMMC-7721 cells were treated with rapamycin, or 5-Fu or both for 36 h, cell lysates were immunoblotted with hTERT antibody. (B) The effect of rapamycin and 5-Fu on hTERT promoter activity. SMMC-7721 cells were transient transfected with pBTdel-130 plasmid DNA, which contains the luciferase reporter driven by the core hTERT promoter, whole cell extract was then prepared from the cells and luciferase activity was measured by Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay System (lands are as labeled on the figure). The mean ± SD of four experiments is shown; statistical significance shown as * and ** was determined by t test, with p > 0.05 defined as significant. (C) hTERT mRNA expression determined with RT-PCR.Back to article page