Fig. 3

CTHRC1 regulates MMP7 and MMP9 expression in vitro and in vivo. a The heat map shows the concentration distributions of CTHRC1 and diverse MMPs in the sera of NSCLC patients as measured by ELISA (n = 92). b mRNA levels of CTHRC1 and diverse MMPs in NSCLC tissues were further analysed by reverse dot blot hybridization (n = 20). c, d CTHRC1 expression was positively correlated with MMP7 and MMP9 in both sera and primary tumour tissues. e, f Western blot analysis demonstrated increased MMP7 and MMP9 production accompanying the ectopic overexpression of CTHRC1; CTHRC1 knockdown downregulated MMP7 and MMP9 expression. g, h The western blot results were semi-quantified and shown in bar graph form. Representative images were shown and all the experiments had been repeated 3 times. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01