Fig. 5

TM4SF1 promotes the EMT of CRC cells via the Wnt/β-catenin/SOX2 signalling pathway. a The GEO database (GSE70880) indicated that SOX2 was overexpressed in CRC tissues. b Spearman’s rank correlation analysis showed the correlation between the expression of TM4SF1 and SOX2 in CRC tissues. c WB and qRT-PCR analysis showed the expression of TM4SF1 and SOX2 in CRC tissues and adjacent non-tumour tissues. d Immunohistochemical staining for TM4SF1 and SOX2 in CRC tissues and normal tissues. e TM4SF1 silencing downregulated the expression of SOX2, Axin2, MMP7, and c-Myc at the protein and mRNA levels. f Wound healing assays showed that SOX2 overexpression rescued the inhibitory effects of migration of sh-TM4SF1-SW480/LoVo cells. g Transwell assays showed that SOX2 overexpression enhanced the migration and invasion potential of TM4SF1-silenced cells. h Tumoursphere assay of CRC cells transfected with sh-TM4SF1 cells or SOX2 cDNA. The tumoursphere number was counted, and the percentage of tumourspheres with diameters < 100 μm, 100–150 μm or > 150 μm was calculated and plotted. i Immunofluorescence images of SOX2, vimentin and ZO1 (red) with SOX2 overexpression in TM4SF1-deficient cells. j Upregulation of SOX2 expression attenuated the loss of expression of EMT and stemness markers after TM4SF1 silencing. *P < 0.05