Fig. 4.

Downregulation of human antigen R (HuR) inhibited cell invasion and metastasis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells. (A) Migration of the cells was assessed using a transwell-based assay. The TE-1 and Eca-109 cells infected HuR knockdown virus were seeded in the upper chamber and incubated for 30 hours at 37°C. The cells in the upper chamber were carefully scraped off using a cotton swab, and those that had migrated to the basal side of the membrane were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde and stained with Giemsa. The membranes were mounted and dried at 37°C for 30 minutes. (B) Wound healing was observed 48 hours after the cells treated. The open wound area after incubation was normalized to the initial wound area. The data are presented as the mean±standard error of mean normalized to the control cells (^**p < 0.01 and ^***p < 0.001). (C) TE-1 and Eca-109 cells infected with the HuR knockdown virus were subjected to Western blot analysis for β-actin, HuR, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2, MMP9, E-cadherin, and vimentin.