β-catenin/TCF4 transcriptional activity.

<p>The inflammatory media conditioned by THP-1 or U937 macrophages induced the activity of the transcription factor β-catenin/TCF4 in SW620 colon cancer cells. Cultures of HT-29 or SW620 cells were transfected with the Firefly luciferase reporter plasmid <i>Top</i>, which contains an artificial gene promoter with TCF4-responsive DNA binding sites. As controls, the vector containing the TCF4 DNA binding sites mutated (<i>Fop</i>) and the empty vector (<i>vector</i>) were transfected in parallel. After 4 hours of transfection, cell cultures were treated with the indicated conditioned media for 24 hours and finally harvested. Results are shown relative to the TOP activity of cells treated with standard medium (<i>CON</i>) and expressed as the mean ± SD of at least 3 independent experiments (<i>*</i>, p = 0.068 with respect to <i>CON</i> or <i>MONO-CM</i> according to the Wilcoxon sign-rank test). <i>CON</i>, standard medium; <i>MONO-CM</i>, conditioned medium from non-activated monocytes; <i>MACRO-CM</i>, conditioned medium from differentiated macrophages.