Fig. 3

MTDH is a direct target of miR-128. a Schematic diagram of 3′UTR of MTDH gene and two predicted binding sites of miR-128. b Schematic representation of the luciferase reporter vectors including hRluc-MTDH 3′UTR-WT with wild-type binding site and hRluc-MTDH 3′UTR-WT containing four separate mutated bases in the binding site. c Relative activity of the luciferase gene fused with the wild-type or mutant 3′UTR of MTDH gene. d Western blot assay for detecting MTDH protein level of MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with NC or miR-124 mimics with β-actin served as internal control. e Expression of MTDH in seven paired clinical breast cancer specimens. N and T present adjacent normal tissue and paired breast cancer specimen, respectively. f Representative images of immunohistochemical staining for MTDH of three randomly selected clinical cases. The brown or sepia staining signal denotes MTDH-positive regions. The symbol ** represents P < 0.01, using a two-tailed Student’s t-test