Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR)
For the quantification of the overall gene expression of twoPTPRT downstream target genes, a qPCR was performed in a 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems) and using tumor cDNA from the carriers, the TaqMan Gene Expression Master Mix (Applied Biosystems) and specific TaqMan probes designed by Thermo Fisher Scientific (BCL-XL assay Hs00236329_m1 and SOCS3 assay Hs02330328_s1). PSMB4 was used as a housekeeping gene whose levels served as a reference (assay Hs00160598_m1), and a pool of healthy colon cDNAs was used as a control. All samples were analyzed in triplicates, and the quantification of the relative target gene expression was calculated as 2-ΔΔCt. The standard deviation was calculated for each sample.