Fig. 4.

The migration ability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of gastric cancer (GC) cells were inhibited after alpha actinin-4 (ACTN4) knockdown. (A) The mean square displacement vs. observation time from well level data. (B) Visualisation of cell displacement. Current displacement Y was plotted against current displacement X. Each point corresponds to the displacement of a cell at a given time point. Mean square displacement: squared norm of a vector from the first point to the current observation point; averaged over all cells per well. Current displacement X (μm): X component of a vector from the first point to the current observation point; averaged over all cells per well. Current displacement Y (μm): Y component of a vector from the first point to the current observation point; averaged over all cells per well. (C) Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of proteins involved in EMT signalling pathway (E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) in GC cells. The right panel shows the quantified statistical plot drawn after statistical analysis. (D–F) After 21 days, the mice were sacrificed, photographed (D), the tumours volume were measured (E) and the tumours were weighed (F) (n = 5). (G) Immunofluorescence (IF) was used to observe the fluorescence expression of paxillin in GC cells. White arrows indicate regions where paxillin is more enriched. Data are representative of three independent experiments. ^∗P < 0.05 and ^∗∗P < 0.01. shNC: short hairpin negative control.