ELE facilitates TGF-β1-mediated downregulation of Smad3 expression but inhibits increased Smad3 phosphorylation.

<p>(A) RT-PCR analyses showed that TGF-β1 treatment led to downregulation of Smad3 mRNA expression, and ELE enhanced the reduction in Smad3 expression (*: P<0.01, **: P<0.001). (B) Western immunoblot analysis showed that the ratio of p-Smad3/total Smad3 was increased in a time-dependent manner with 10 ng/ml TGF-β1 (*:P<0.01), although expression levels of total Smad3 were slightly decreased. (C) TGF-β1-induced Smad3 phosphorylation was blocked by ELE and total Smad3 was further decreased in MCF-7 cells treated with TGF-β1 and ELE (*: P<0.01, **: P<0.001).