Figure 7

Overexpression of miR-181a induces CRC cell epithelial mesenchymal transition. (A) The morphology of SW480 and SW620 CRC cells with miR-181a overexpression or knockdown. The cell-to-cell contact was reduced in hsa-miR-181a–overexpressing SW480 cells and increased in miR-181a knockdown SW620 cells compared with the controls. (B) Expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers were compared by Western blot analysis between miR-control-SW480 and miR-181a-SW480 cells, between miR-control-SW620 and miR-181a-RNAi-SW620 cells, between miR-control-HT29 and miR-181a-HT29 cells, between HT29-NC and HT29-WIF1-siRNA cells. β-actin was used as a loading control; (C) Immunofluorescence was used to compare the expression levels and pattern of epithelial and mesenchymal markers between miR-control-SW480 and miR-181a-SW480 cells, between miR-control-SW620 and miR-181a-RNAi-SW620 cells. Epithelial markers (E-cadherinand β-catenin, red signal) were down-regulated in miR-181a-SW480 cells and up-regulated in miR-181a-RNAi-SW620 cells; mesenchymal markers (vimentin, red signal) were up-regulated in miR-181a-SW480 cells and down-regulated in miR-181a-RNAi-SW620 cells.