Immunohistochemistry and evaluation Resected specimens were fixed with 10% paraformaldehyde and embedded in paraffin blocks. Five-micrometer sections of 82 representative soft tissue tumor blocks were used for immunohistochemical

analysis. Sections were deparaffinized in xylene and rehydrated in graded alcohols and water. Endogenous peroxidase activity was blocked via treatment with 2.5% hydrogen peroxide for 20 minutes. Antigen retrieval was performed by placing the slides in boiling citric acid buffer (10 mM sodium citrate and 10 mM citric acid) for 15 minutes. Sections were treated with protein-blocking solution for 30 minutes and primary antibodies such as STAT3 and pSTAT3 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc, CA) were applied at a 1:100 and 1:50 dilution and incubated overnight at 4°C. After several rinses in phosphate-buffered saline, the

sections were HSP inhibitor cancer incubated in biotinylated secondary antibody for 30 minutes. The bound antibodies were detected by a streptavidin-biotin method, with a Vecta Elite ABC staining kit (Vector Laboratories). The slides were rinsed in phosphate-buffered saline, exposed to diaminobenzidine, and counterstained with Mayer’s hematoxylin. For the tumor tissues, nuclear STAT3 and pSTAT3 (Tyr 705) staining were recorded as the numbers of STAT3 and pSTAT3-positive nuclei, divided by the total number of nuclei of at least 10 fields, and then expressed as a percentage. Cytoplasmic positivity of STAT3 and pSTAT3 were measured depending

on the intensity of immunoreactivity (independently scored by D.D, AN, and LMR) and scored as mild (+), moderate Selleck MG132 (++), and intense (+++). Immunoblot analysis Protein extracts were prepared by homogenizing fresh tissue in lysis buffer comprising 10% NP40, 5 M NaCl, 1 M HEPES, 0.1 M DTT, 0.1 M EGTA, 0.1 M EDTA, protease inhibitors (Sigma) and differential centrifugation (14000 rpm for 10 minutes). The protein concentrations were determined using Bradford’s assay and 60 μg of proteins were resolved by 10% SDS-PAGE, and the separated proteins were electrotransferred onto nitrocellulose membrane (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). After preblocking these membranes with 5% skimmed milk, they were treated with antibodies against STAT3 (1:200, Bcl-w Santa Cruz Biotechnology), pSTAT3 (Tyr 705) (1:200, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and β- actin (1:5000, Sigma) as primary antibodies and incubated overnight at 4ºC. Horseradish peroxidase-conjugated antirabbit (1:5000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) and antimouse (1:5000, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) antibodies were used as secondary antibodies and incubated for 1 h at room temperature. Immunoreactive bands were developed with an ECL system (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Uppsala, Sweden). Reverse Transcription – PCR Total RNA was isolated from fresh tissues using TRIzol (Invitrogen) reagent. 10μg of total RNA was converted to cDNA using M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase (Promega) in a 25μl reaction.