Figure 3

FOXF2 deficiency induces EMT phenotype of basal-like mammary epithelial cells and BLBC cells. (A) Morphological photos of the indicated cells (×200). (B) The protein expression of EMT markers and FOXF2 in the indicated cells was detected by immunoblot. (C) The protein expression of EMT markers in the indicated cells was detected by immunofluorescence staining. (D) Vimentin expression in tissues of primary tumor, lung metastases and liver metastases harvested from xenograft mice were stained by immunohistochemistry (×200). Arrows point to the metastatic cancer cells. (E) MMP1, MMP2 and MMP9 mRNA levels in the indicated cells were measured by RT-qPCR. Fold changes were relative to the mRNA expression of the control cells. Three independent assays were performed in triplicate. The data were expressed as mean ± SD. ^** P <0.01. BLBC, basal-like breast cancer; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition; RT-qPCR, reverse transcription quantitative PCR; SD, standard deviation.