Abstract
Metastasis of tumor cells is associated with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is a process whereby epithelial cells lose their polarity and acquire new features of mesenchyme. EMT has been reported to be induced by transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), but its mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we performed a study to investigate whether PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk1/2 signaling pathways involved in EMT in the human lung cancer A549 cells. The results showed that after treated with TGF-β1 for 48 h, A549 cells displayed more fibroblast-like shape, lost epithelial marker E-cadherin and increased mesenchymal markers Vimentin and Fibronectin. Moreover, TGF-β1-induced EMT after 48 h was accompanied by increased of cell migration and change of Akt and Erk1/2 phosphorylation. In addition, EMT was reversed by PI3K inhibitor LY294002 and MEK1/2 inhibitor U0126, which suggested that A549 cells under stimulation of TGF-β1 undergo a switch into mesenchymal cells and PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk1/2 signaling pathways serve to regulate TGF-β1-induced EMT of A549 cells.
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Abbreviations
- EGF:
-
Epidermal growth factor
- EMT:
-
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
- FGF:
-
Fibroblast growth factor
- HGF/SF:
-
Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor
- TGF-β1:
-
Transforming growth factor-β1
- TβRI:
-
TGF-β receptors type I
- TβRII:
-
TGF-β receptors type II
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Grants from National Science Foundation of China (No. 30872553 and 30800631) and Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (No. 10JC1419200).
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The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.
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X.-F. Chen and H.-J. Zhang contributed equally to this study.
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Chen, XF., Zhang, HJ., Wang, HB. et al. Transforming growth factor-β1 induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in human lung cancer cells via PI3K/Akt and MEK/Erk1/2 signaling pathways. Mol Biol Rep 39, 3549–3556 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-011-1128-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-011-1128-0