Effect of epigenetic modifying compounds on the expression of epithelial and EMT marker genes. Treatment of the cells with 10 µM 5-Azacytidine (5-AZA) plus 0.5 mM Vitamin C dark bars) and in the presence of insulin plus hydrocortisone (black bars) resulted in significant changes of epithelial and EMT marker genes. The expression level of the EMT marker Snail1 (SNAIL), the epithelial marker genes E- Cadherin and Cytokeratin 18 (CK18) and the hepatic key regulator gene Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) were measured by qRT-PCR. Unstimulated HepG2 cells (grey bars) as well as PHH (red line) served as control and reference culture. Values were normalized to GAPDH and represent the mean of N = 3, n = 3. As positive reference served a pool of five different primary human hepatocyte (PHH) donors. Bars represent Mean ± SEM, * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001 as indicated.