Fig. 2.
hTERT plays a critical role regulating the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in CSCs. (A) Phase-contrast images showing hTERT-/low CSCs have an epithelial phenotype, whereas hTERThigh CSCs have a mesenchymal phenotype. (B) Confocal immunofluorescence images for N-cadherin (green), E-cadherin (red) and Snail+Slug (green) in control CSCs, CSCs overexpressing hTERT and hTERT-knockdown CSCs. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bars: 60 µM. (C) The expression levels of mRNAs encoding N-cadherin, Zeb1, Snail, Slug, Twist, Vimentin and Desmoplakin in CSCs overexpressing hTERT and hTERT-knockdown CSCs relative to control CSCs as determined by real-time qRT-PCR. The data are reported as the means±s.d. (D) Flow cytometry overlay histogram analysis of N-cadherin and E-cadherin in control CSCs and CSCs overexpressing hTERT and hTERT-knockdown CSCs. For comparison, an isotype control was used to define the positive and negative population for each marker.