title: Transforming growth factor-β1 regulates epithelial-mesenchymal transition in association with cancer stem-like cells in a breast cancer cell line.
abstract: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is associated with altered connection and junctions between cells and changes in abilities of invasion and migration. In this study, we investigated whether SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells induced to undergo EMT exhibit changes in morphological and invasion abilities after Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) treatment. Serum-deprived SK-BR-3 cells were treated with TGF-β1 (0, 10 ng/mL) for 24 h. The cells morphological changes were observed and imaged using inverted phase contrast microscope. Scratch experiment and invasion experiment were employed to detect changes of invasion ability, cell-flow experiment was used to assess cell cycle, immunohistochemistry technique was used to detect epithelial and mesenchymal markers after the crawling cells were fixed. Our research reveal that SK-BR-3 cells become larger and more messy, the elongated cells extend pseudopodia, the link of the cells became more loosely and cell gap widened after TGF-β1 treatment. SK-BR-3 cells showed faster growing and improved invasion abilities after TGF-β1 treatment, and reduced G1 phase cells proportion in the total number of cells after the conversion, in contrast the S phase cells accounted for the proportion of the total number of cells increased. These findings indicate that TGF-β1-induced EMT in breast cancer cells may be associated with major alterations in morphological and invasion abilities.
authors: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Yongfeng
authors: Y
authors: Jia
authors: Department of Pathology, Erdos City Central Hospital Erdos, 017000, China.
authors: Di
authors: D
authors: Wu
authors: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Fen
authors: F
authors: Yun
authors: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Shi
authors: Physical Examination Center, The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Hospital Huhhot, 010017, China.
authors: Nianrong
authors: N
authors: Luo
authors: Department of PathoPhysiology, College of Basic Medicine of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Zhiyue
authors: Z
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Yonghong
authors: Y
authors: Shi
authors: Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Qinnuan
authors: Q
authors: Sun
authors: Molecular Pathology Laboratory, College of Basic Medicine of Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Lili
authors: L
authors: Jiang
authors: The College of Public Health, Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Shiqi
authors: S
authors: Wang
authors: The College of Public Health, Inner Mongolia Medical University Huhhot, 010059, China.
authors: Maolin
authors: M
authors: Du
keywords: Breast cancer; Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1); epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); invasion ability