Expression of epithelial to mesenchymal markers in treated cancer cell lines

Abstract

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) occur in tumour cells. This involves the downregulation of epithelial characteristics and the upregulation of mesenchymal characteristics in epithelial cells. These transitions cause tumour cells to become more motile, and result in invasion and metastasis of the tumour. In this study two treatment agents were used to induce EMT in BC and CRC cell lines. Two epithelial cell lines were used: BT-20 (BC) and HCT116 (CRC), together with a mesenchymal cell line – MDAMB-436 (BC) which provided a positive control for the study. The treatments used in the study were TGF-β1 and VPA. TGF-β1 was used on the BC cell lines and VPA was used to treat the CRC cell line. FN1 was also investigated in order to observe its possible role as an early invasion biomarker. The QuantiGene plex assay was used to investigate the gene expression of all cell lines at different dosages and time points. Results showed that VPA and TGF-β affected genes differently over 24 and 48 hours. Epithelial genes were downregulated at 24 hours in HCT116 when treated with VPA, and mesenchymal genes were upregulated at 48 hours. In the case of BT-20 with TGF-β1 there was an increase in mesenchymal gene expression at 24 hours, followed by a decrease in epithelial gene expression at 48 hours. FN1 showed a consistent increase in gene expression in both cell lines at 24 and 48 hours. This indicates that FN1 may be one of the first genes affected by EMT and may be found in the invasive areas on a tumour.