Figure 6.

Vinblastine inhibits mice xenografted A549/A400 tumor growth and vincristine reduces phosphorylation of ERK. The A549/A400 cells were injected subcutaneously. Twelve animals were then randomly divided into three groups (PBS, VBL and pemetrexed). VBL was obtained from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (Petah Tikva, Israel). Tumor sizes were measured every 3 days following drug injection and tumor volume was calculated by the following formula: 0.5 × larger diameter (mm) × small diameter² (mm). Due to tumor size variability, a non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was applied for statistical analysis. (a). *P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The effects of VCR on A549/A400 cells were investigated by western blot analysis (b). The mRNA levels of ZEB1, E-cadherin and fibronectin were analyzed by RT–PCR (c).The cell viability with VCR (5 nM) was examined by MTT assay (d). The effects of VCR on migration (e) and invasion were determined (f). A signaling pathway that is regulated by vinca alkaloids in pemetrexed-resistant lung cancer cells is proposed (g).