Figure 5.

Integrin α11 cytoplasmic tail is involved in focal adhesion formation and FAK^Y397 activation. (A) Effect of FAK and ERK inhibition in α11-mediated spheroid migration. Homospheroids of _Huα11-WT and _Huα11-1171 cells were embedded into collagen I gel and treated with either DMSO or U0126 or PF573228. Spheroid migration was quantified after 24 hours. Radial profile plot depicts the radial cell intensity from the center of the spheroid and the intensity of cells that have migrated beyond 400 µm was calculated. Scale bar: 200 µm. (B) Localization of phospho-FAK^Y397 in focal adhesions. _Huα11-WT and _Huα11-1171 cells were allowed to attach on collagen I for 120 minutes. Cells were fixed with 4% PFA and stained for phospho-FAK^Y397. Focal adhesions positive for phospho-FAK^Y397 were quantified using ImageJ. Scale bar: 10 µm. Results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation of at least three replicates from one representative experiment of at least three independent experiments. Statistical significance was assessed by two tailed, unpaired t-tests and P-values are expressed as ***P < 0.001; **P < 0.01 and *P < 0.05.