Figure 1. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression in different cells was correlated with E-cadherin and vimentin expression and cell motility.

Protein expression was evaluated by western blotting. Cells (10⁴ cells/Transwell) were seeded on matrigel-coated Transwell inserts and incubated for 16 h. The migrated/invasive cells were stained with crystal violet and counted using the Image-Pro plus software. Images were acquired at 40× magnification. (a) Cell migration potential between A549, H1299, and CL1-5 cells. (b) Expression of AhR, E-cadherin, and vimentin in A549, H1299, and CL1-5 cells. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S11. (c) AhR silencing and overexpression in A549 and CL1-5 cells, respectively, and vimentin expression but not E-cadherin was also affected. Full-length blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. S12. (d,e) Cell morphology was altered in A549 and CL1-5 cells. Immunostaining of F-actin (green fluoresce) was observed by confocal microscope. The fluorescence intensity (a.u.), cell area and minor/major axis ratios were also measured by Image Pro^TM and data analysed as indicated. Arrowheads indicate cells expressing the actin stress fibers. (f) And the cell invasive potential were altered in A549 and CL1-5 cells. The quantified data were analysed as cell number per field and expressed as the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 compared to the control group.