Figure 3. The effect of eIF5A treatment on phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) in HCEpiC was detected in this experiment. Western blot analyses of phospho-Akt in EGF, EGF+eIF5A small interference RNA (siRNA), eIF5A siRNA, EGF+negative siRNA, and medium alone (control)-treated cells. At 48 h post infection, HCEpiCs were stimulated with EGF. After further incubation for 30 min, cells were subjected to western blot analysis. The graph shows the relative phospho-Akt protein levels normalized to total-Akt. (**) were highly significant when compared with control group, in both cases p-value <0.01, asterisks indicate p-value < 0.05 with the Student t test.