Protein Expression Analysis via Western Blot

Cells were lysed in lysis buffer (#KGP250/KGP2100, Keygen Biotech, Nanjing, China), and proteins were separated by SDS–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) before transferring to PVDF membranes, according to the standard manufacture’s protocol. Vinculin (Gudiño et al. 2021 (link)) and β-Actin were used as internal loading control. The following primary antibodies were used in this study: galectin-3 (#ab2785, Abcam; dilution rates of 1:1000), foxc1 (#ab227977, Abcam; dilution rates of 1:1000), active caspase-3/caspase-3 (#A11021 and #A19654, ABclonal, Wuhan, China; dilution rates of 1:500), and vinculin (#26520-1-AP, Proteintech, China; dilution rates of 1:2000). All primary antibodies were incubated with PVDF membranes overnight at 4 °C. The incubation time for active caspase-3/caspase-3 primary antibody needed to be appropriately longer. Images of protein bands were captured using Syngene GeneGenius (SYNGENE, GeneGnome XRQ NPC, Cambridge, UK.).