Fig. 4

Vitamin C enhances the downregulation of Snail and upregulation of GADD45B expression induced by 5-AZA in HCC. a Quantitative changes in Snail mRNA in HLE and Huh7 treated with vitamin C, 5-AZA, and 5-AZA + vitamin C compared to the untreated control after 48 h. Data was normalized using GAPDH expression as a reference control. b Quantitative changes in GADD45B mRNA in HLE and Huh7 with the various treatments after 48 h. Data was normalized using GAPDH expression as a reference control. c Western blot analysis for changes in Snail and GADD45B proteins in HLE and Huh7 with the various treatments. Calculations were normalized with GAPDH protein as a reference standard. d Snail expression is downregulated in the SiRNA control; however, in the TET2 and TET3 KDs, an increase in the expression of Snail in HLE and Huh7 was observed with the treatment. All the data are the average of the experiments (N = 3). e An increase in GADD45B expression was seen in the SiRNA controls treated with 5-AZA + vitamin C; however, within the TET2 and TET3 KDs, an increase in the expression of GADD45B expression was seen with the treatment with 5-AZA + vitamin C. Statistical significance was tested using one-way ANOVA (non-parametric),Tukey’s test. *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.01. Error bars represent the standard deviation