FIGURE 1.

In vitro motility of A2780 and A2780/HPR cells and α-SMA expression. Panel A, in vitro motility has been assessed in A2780 (white bars) and A2780/HPR cells (black bars) by wound healing assay. Confluent monolayers were wounded with a rubber policeman; phase contrast microscopy images of the wounds have been recorded, and the wound widths have been measured at 0, 24, and 48 h. Data are expressed in millimeters and are the means ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.01 versus time-matched A2780 cells. Panel B, protein levels of the epithelium-mesenchyme transition marker α-SMA have been evaluated on cell lysates from A2780 (white bar) and A2780/HPR cells (black bar) by Western blotting after SDS-PAGE separation. The amount of α-SMA present in each sample was determined by densitometry, normalized with respect to β-tubulin, used as loading control. Data are the means ± S.D. of three independent experiments. *, p < 0.01 versus A2780 cells. Panel C, in vitro motility of A2780 and A2780/HPR cells has been assessed by a phagokinetic gold sol assay. Briefly, cells were plated on colloidal gold-coated coverslips. Migrating cells ingest or displace colloidal gold particles, forming clear particle-free tracks. The areas of the tracks cleared by the cells have been recorded at time 0 and after 24 h. Average track areas (means ± S.D. of 50 measurements) normalized for the different cell size are reported in the left panel. *, p < 0.001 versus A2780 cells. Representative phase contrast microscopy images for each data set are shown in the right panel.