Figure 3.

Ectopic expression of FHL2 suppresses E‐cadherin and induces α‐SMA and fibronectin. (A) Overexpression of FHL2 in tubular epithelial cells is confirmed by Western blotting with anti‐DDK antibody. NRK‐52E cells were transiently transfected with either the expression vector of DDK‐tagged FHL2 (pFHL2) or empty vector (pcDNA3). (B and C) Forced expression of FHL2 suppresses E‐cadherin expression (B) and induces fibronectin (B) and α‐SMA (C) expression and assembly in tubular epithelial cells. TGF‐β1 (2 ng/ml) treatment of NRK‐52E cells was used as positive control. (D) Immunofluorescence staining shows that overexpression of FHL2 suppresses epithelial markers E‐cadherin and induces fibronectin and α‐SMA expression in tubular epithelial cells.