EMT-associated proteins, including TGFβ1, E-cadherin and vimentin were detected by western blotting, which demonstrated that the drug may inhibit the initiation of EMT in osteosarcoma cells.
Knockdown of FER1L4 in OS cells decreased the apoptosis rate, but increased the OS cell proliferation, upregulated the expression levels of CD133 and Nanog, as well as promoted Twist1 expression, increased the N-cadherin and Vimentin expression.
One osteosarcoma showed negative immunostaining for vimentin and of samples submitted to anti-osteocalcin immunostaining, three osteosarcomas and one fibrosarcoma had negative staining.
The loss of epithelial characteristics E-cadherin (E-Cad) and up regulation of mesenchymal markers Vimentin (Vim) suggested TGF-β induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of osteosarcoma cells.
Furthermore, high level of miR-429 in osteosarcoma cells obviously increased the expression of E-cadherin protein but decreased the expression of Vimentin, N-Cadherin and Snail proteins.