Reduced expression of β-catenin inhibitor Chibby in colon carcinoma cell lines

Figure 2 Quantification of Chibby expression in colon carcinoma cell lines. The amount of Chibby mRNA expression was carefully quantified by real-time PCR. All colon carcinoma cell lines showed down-regulation of Chibby mRNA expression in comparison to colon epithelial cells (CEC) and HT29 M3 cells, a cell line derived from HT29 cells that is considered to be a highly differentiated colon carcinoma cell line (black bars). Treatment of cells with the demethylating agent 5-azacytidine caused a modest increase in Chibby mRNA levels in SW48, SW480, and CaCo2 cells, but not in the other cell lines (grey bars). HT29 M3 cells were used as controls for the demethylation experiments as the experiment could not have been performed with primary CEC due to culture conditions.