Figure 3.

Effect of recombinant TFF1 on EMT markers expression in AGS cells. (A) mRNA expression of TFF1, Nanog, E-cadherin, Snail, vimentin, and ZEB1 detected and quantified by real-time PCR and correlated to the value of HPRT mRNA expression in AGS cells treated or not with hrTFF1 (4 μg/mL) for 72 h. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01 vs. the untreated control; (B) Immunofluorescence analysis to detect TFF1, vimentin, and cytokeratin-8 and -18 on AGS cells treated or not with hrTFF1. Immunofluorescence images refer to 72 h after treatment. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Magnification 63×. Bar = 10 μm; (C) Quantification of cytokeratin-8 and -18 as percent of fluorescence intensity per cell area from corresponding panels in Figure 3C. Statistical analyses for significance of results were performed using Student’s t-test, assuming a two-tailed distribution and unequal variance. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.