Fig. 1

MTA1 could upregulate EpCAM expression and promote invasion and migration via upregulation of EpCAM expression in lung cancer cells. a Western blot analysis of the expression level of EpCAM in MTA1-overexpressing or MTA1-silencing cells. shNC: A549, PC-9, NCI-H446 cells transfected with Lenti-shNC-GFP; shMTA1: A549, PC-9, NCI-H446 cells transfected with Lenti-shMTA1; NC: A549, PC-9, NCI-H446 cells transfected with Lenti-NC-GFP. MTA1: A549, PC-9, NCI-H446 cells transfected with Lenti-MTA1. b Images of the transwell invasion assay in NC cells, MTA1-overepressed cells transfected with Scramble siRNA or EpCAMsiRNA and MTA1-silenced cells transfected with vector control or EpCAM. c Quantitative analysis of the number of invasion cells in the five groups of cells. The invaded cells were counted under × 200 magnification (five randomly selected fields). First, the number of invasive shMTA1 cells was significantly reduced (*p < 0.05, shMTA1 vs. shNC), and the number of invasive MTA1 cells was dramatically increased (*p < 0.05, MTA1 vs. NC). Second, invasive response of MTA1-overexpression cells was impaired significantly after downregulatingEpCAM (*p < 0.05, EpCAMsiRNA vs. Scramble siRNA in MTA1-overexpression cells), and invasion could be rescued by overexpressing EpCAM (*p < 0.05, EpCAM vs. Vector control in MTA1-silencing cells). d Representative images of the five cell groups in the wound healing assay (magnification,×200). e Quantitative analysis of the migration ability of lung cancer cells. First, the MTA1-silencing could reduce cells motility when compared with the negative controls cells (*p < 0.05, shMTA1 vs. shNC), and the MTA1-overexpression could increase cells motility when compared with the negative controls cells (*p < 0.05, MTA1 vs. NC). Second, a knockdown of EpCAM expression in MTA1-overexpression cells could dramatically attenuate cell migration (*p < 0.05, EpCAMsiRNA vs. Scramble siRNA in MTA1-overexpression cells), and the upregulation of EpCAM in MTA1-silencing cells could regain cell migration (*p < 0.05, EpCAM vs. Vector control in MTA1-silencing cells). All experiments were repeated three times