Fig. 5

Detection of ALDH1A3 and the signaling proteins in GBM by western blot. a Representative blots detected the expression of STAT3 and p-STAT3, p-Akt, PTEN and GAPDH in the control (C, lane 1–2) and in GBM cases with lower immunoreactivity score (IRS ≤ 2, lane 3–5) and with higher immunoreactivity score (IRS > 2, lane 6–9) (See original images in Supplementary Fig. S1). b Semi-quantification of the blots. The integrated optical density (IOD) of the individual bands on blots was measured by ImageJ and the ratio of the target protein to the housekeeping protein GAPDH was calculated. The relative expression data were presented when the ratio of the control group was normalized as 1. One way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test was employed for multi-groups comparison in b. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001: compared with the control (C); #P < 0.05 and ##P < 0.01, compared with the group “low” (IRS ≤ 2)