HCMV infection inhibits Wnt/β-catenin transcriptional activity in EVTs in response to Wnt stimulation.

<p>(A) SGHPL-4 cells were co-transfected with TOPflash and pRL-TK plasmids and 6 hr later infected with Towne-GFP (MOI of 1–2) or mock-infected. 48 hr after infection, the cells were stimulated with either 150 ng/mL Wnt-3A or PBS control for an additional 12 hr. Luciferase expression in cell lysates was measured and normalized to <i>Renilla</i> luciferase activity. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of results from three independent experiments each performed with duplicate transfections (n = 6). **<i>p</i><0.01. (B) FOPflash (C) <i>Cyclin D1</i>, <i>MMP-2</i> and <i>MMP-9</i> mRNA levels in SGHPL-4 cells 36 and 60 hr after infection with HCMV-TR (MOI of 1–2) or mock-infection were analyzed by qRT-PCR in triplicate. mRNA levels were normalized to GAPDH expression. The data are presented as fold change (mean +/− SEM) relative to the mock-infected sample at each timepoint. *<i>p</i><0.05; **<i>p</i><0.01.