Figure 4

Confirmation of Brachyury-binding site in E-cadherin promoter and Snail siRNA and Slug siRNA prevents TGF-β1-induced EMT. (A) Relative reporter activity of the E-cadherin promoter report gene compared with the control cell line. The mean values from three independent experiments were shown. ^*P < 0.05 compared with the control. (B) Western blots analysis of Snail and Slug in HK2 cells that were incubated with 5 ng/ml TGF-β1 for 24 h. A representative blot from three independent experiments is shown (Left). The histogram shows the average volume density normalized to the β-actin (Right) (n = 3). ^*P < 0.05 and ^**P < 0.01compared with the control. (C) Western blots analysis of E-cadherin, plakoglobin, fibronectin and vimentin expression in Snail–specific siRNA, Slug–specific siRNA or scrambled siRNAs transfected HK2 cells. A representative blot from three independent experiments is shown (Top). The histogram shows the average volume density normalized to the loading control, β-actin (Bottom). (n = 3). ^*P < 0.05 and ^**P < 0.01 compared with the scrambled siRNAs transfected cells and TGF-β1 treated cells.