Differential expression of genes between the BxPC-3 and BxPC-M8 cell lines, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition-associated protein expression changes. (A) Expression levels of 20 selected genes were determined between the BxPC-3 and BxPC-M8 cells using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. (B) Western blotting demonstrated that the expression of COL6A1 was significantly upregulated in BxPC-M8 cells compared with BxPC-3 (***P<0.001). (C) Western blotting revealed the relative expression of E-cad, N-cad vimentin, Snail and MMP-9 between BxPC-M8 and BxPC-3 cells (left panel). The results of semi-quantitative densitometric analysis were presented in the right panel (***P<0.001). COL6A1, collagen type VI α1 chain; E-cad, E-cadherin; N-cad, N-cadherin; MMP-9, matrix metalloproteinase-9.