Figure 6

Silencing Stat3 dampens EMT phenotype and attenuates invasion/metastatic ability of 97 L-ON cells in vitro and vivo. (A) 97 L-ON, mesenchymal, fibroblast-like cancer cells underwent morphologic change into epithelial phenotype after knockdown Stat3. (B) Representative photographs of cell migration and invasion. (C) Quantification migration and invasion assay indicated that the numbers of migrated or invaded 97 L-ON-shStat3 cells were less than those of 97 L-ON-Scramble cells (P < 0.001). (D) Significant decreases in the mesenchymal genes, N-cadherin, Snail, and Vimentin and increase in the epithelial gene E-Cadherin were found in 97 L-ON-shStat3 cells by Western blot analysis. (E) Up panel, representative photographs of intrahepatic invasion (H & E staining, black arrows point to the invasive nodules, ×100 magnification). Bottom panel, representative photographs of lung metastasis (H & E staining, black arrows point to the metastatic nodules, ×40 magnification). (F) Quantification analysis showed the numbers of liver dissemination (up panel) and lung metastasis (bottom panel) of 97 L-ON-shStat3 cells were both less than those of 97 L-ON-Scramble cells (P = 0.003 and P = 0.001).