Reverse transcription was carried out using the MMLTV reverse transcriptase kit from Invitrogen (Thermo-Fisher, Bd Sébastien Brant, Parc d’Innovation, France).
The expression of the CD24 gene was quantified by TaqMan RT-PCR utilizing the Applied Biosystem StepOne Plus cycler (Applied Biosystems, Austin, TX, USA) and TaqMan Gene Expression Assay with primer and probe sets (Applied Biosystems) for CD24 (Hs02379687_s1).
HPRT and WYHAZ (ABI, Branchburg, NJ, USA) were used to standardize the expression level. The relative amount of CD24 was calculated by employing the comparative CT method (2−ΔΔCT) [49 (link)]. Amplification was performed for the JEG-3 and BeWo cells transfected by STOX1-A or STOX1-B polymorphic variants compared with the empty expression vector used as a mock control.