An anoikis resistant-like phenotype in acidic melanoma cells. (a) Representative images of western blot for N-cad, EGFR, pAKT/AKT, pERK/ERK, Tie1, IKB, and β-actin of A375M6 melanoma cells exposed to standard medium (pH 7.4), to an acidified medium for 24 hours (transient exposure, pH 6.7) or to a reduced pH medium, for approximately three months (chronic exposure, pH 6.7c), and (right) densitometry graph of protein expression. (b) Representative images (left) of invasiveness of melanoma cells grown in different pH conditions in the presence or absence of 25μM Ilomastat (a metalloproteinases inhibitor) and quantitative analysis (right) of the number of cells that migrated through Matrigel. (c) Representative images (left) of flow cytometric analysis of αvβ3 and of αvβ5 integrin expression of A375M6 melanoma cells grown in different pH conditions and (right) quantitative analysis of integrin expression as percentage of increment in Mean Fluorescent Intensity. Each experiment was conducted in triplicate and data are expressed as mean ± SEM of at least three independent experiments. ∗ p<0.05.