Fig. 1

E-cadherin-Slug axis regulates NSCLC cells migration in oncogenic K-ras expressing system. a Phase contrast images depicting migration of A549 cells (upper left panel) and p53-reconstituted H1299 cells (lower left panel) for up to 24 h was determined by wound healing assay and percent cell migration was represented graphically (right panel). Scale bar: 100 μm. The inset shows immunoblot analysis for the transfection efficiency of p53-cDNA in H1299 cells. b Phase contrast images depict time-dependent migration of oncogenic K-ras expressing control (upper left panel) and DN-K-ras-transfected A549 cells (lower left panel) as determined by wound healing assay and percent cell migration was quantified and represented graphically (right panel). Scale bar: 100 μm. The immunoblot analysis of p-MEK depicts the transfection efficiency of DN-K-ras-cDNA in A549 cells (inset). c Upper panel: Expression of E-cadherin was visualised by immunofluorescence in control and DN-K-ras-transfected A549 cells (Scale bar: 10 μm). Images were counterstained with DAPI to represent nuclei. Lower panel: mRNA (left panel) and protein (right panel) expression levels of E-cadherin in control and DN-K-ras-transfected A549 cells as determined by RT-PCR and western blot analyses, respectively. d Percent cell migration of untransfected-/ E-cadherin-siRNA transfected, oncogenic K-ras-expressing control and DN-K-ras-reconstituted-A549 cells as determined by wound healing assay was quantified and represented graphically. The inset represents the immunoblot analysis for the transfection efficiency of E-cadherin-siRNA. e Expression profiles of Slug mRNA (upper panel) and protein (lower panel) levels of control and DN-K-ras-transfected A549 cells as determined by RT-PCR and western blot analyses, respectively. f mRNA (upper left panel) and protein (lower left panel) expression levels of E-cadherin in untransfected-/ Slug-siRNA transfected control and DN-K-ras-reconstituted A549 cells as determined by RT-PCR and western blot analyses, respectively. Graphical representations of percent cell migration for the same experimental set as determined by wound healing assay (right panel). The inset represents the immunoblot analysis for the transfection efficiency of Slug-siRNA. α-Actin/GAPDH was used as an internal loading control. Data are presented as mean ± SEM or representative of three independent experiments