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Involvement of ZEB1 and E-cadherin in the invasion of lung squamous cell carcinoma

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Abstract

This study intended to investigate the expression of the ZEB1 and E-cadherin proteins in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) tissues and to examine the clinicopathological correlation between protein levels and LSCC. RT-PCR and Western blot were used to examine the expression of ZEB1 and E-cadherin mRNAs and proteins in LSCC tissues as well as in adjacent normal tissues, and then analyze the relationship between the clinicopathological characteristics and the expression changes of ZEB1 and E-cadherin mRNAs in LSCC. In addition, RNAi was used to knockdown the expression of the ZEB1 gene in Human HCC827 cells; subsequently, changes in the invasive ability of the resultant cells were studied. The positive rates of ZEB1 and E-cadherin mRNAs in LSCC tissues were 69.2 and 38.5 %, respectively. They differed significantly from the corresponding positive rates in the adjacent normal lung tissues (15.4 and 80.8 %, p < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between the protein levels of ZEB1 and E-cadherin in LSCC tissues (r = -0.714, p < 0.001); in addition, it was found that ZEB1 protein expression in LSCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the neighboring normal lung tissues (p < 0.05), and its expression was also significantly higher in patients with lymph node metastases and distant metastases compared to those patients without metastatic disease (p < 0.05). On the contrary, E-cadherin expression was significantly lower in LSCC tissues than that in the neighboring normal tissue (p < 0.05). It was lower in patients with lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis compared to patients without metastatic disease (p < 0.05). However, the expression of ZEB1 and E-cadherin was independent of gender, age, tumor size, or tumor differentiation level (p > 0.05). Transfection of ZEB1 siRNA into HCC827 cells significantly reduced the ZEB1 protein level (p < 0.01) and significantly elevated E-cadherin levels (p < 0.01). Moreover, significantly less ZEB1 siRNA-transfected cells migrated through Transwell chambers in the LSCC tissue than that in the control groups (untransfected or transfected with control siRNA, p < 0.01). The expression of the ZEB1 gene in LSCC tissues is downregulated with the expression of E-cadherin. On the other hand, the expression of siRNA against ZEB1 promotes E-cadherin expression and suppresses the invasive ability conferred by E-cadherin. In conclusion, our data suggested that overexpression of the ZEB1 gene is possibly associated with the occurrence, development, invasion of LSCC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Interventional Radiology, Shanghai 10th People’s Hospital, Tongji University, No. 301, Yanchang Road, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Jiaxing Zhang, Chenhui Lu, Chuanwu Cao & Maoquan Li

  2. Department of Regenerative Medicine, Tongji University School of Medicine, No. 1,239, Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Jun Zhang

  3. School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Jiuhong Kang

Authors
  1. Jiaxing Zhang
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  2. Chenhui Lu
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  3. Jun Zhang
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  4. Jiuhong Kang
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  5. Chuanwu Cao
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  6. Maoquan Li
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Zhang or Maoquan Li.

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Jiaxing Zhang and Chenhui Lu contributed equally to this study.

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Zhang, J., Lu, C., Zhang, J. et al. Involvement of ZEB1 and E-cadherin in the invasion of lung squamous cell carcinoma. Mol Biol Rep 40, 949–956 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-2136-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-012-2136-4

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