Figure 3.

Bcl-w promotes EMT, migration, invasion, stemness maintenance, and metastasis in vitro and in vivo

(A and B) Indicated cells were analyzed for wound healing assay (A) (scale bars, 200 μm) and invasion assay with Matrigel-coated Transwells (B) (scale bars, 100 μm). (C) The stemness in indicated cells was shown through sphere forming assay (scale bars, 100 μm). (D) The stemness of Bcl-w was detected by anchorage-independent cell growth assay in A549 cells. (E) The level of indicated proteins was detected by western blot analysis in indicated cells. β-actin was used for normalization in western blot analysis. (F) Bcl-w-knockdown H460 cells were injected into the tail vein in BALB/c nude mice (n = 4, 1 × 10⁶ cells/mouse). After 8 weeks, lung was harvested and subjected to H&E staining and metastatic nodule counting in lung tissue. The data are presented as mean ± SD. ∗p < 0.05; ∗∗p < 0.01; ∗∗∗p < 0.001. Student`s t test.