Figure 3

Effects of NFI-C overexpression and inactivation on morphology, adhesion, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. (A) Morphology of MCF10A cells when transfected with NFI-C-expressing or NFI-C-siRNA constructs, or treated with TGF-β. Images obtained using phase-contrast microscopy (Magnification: 100×). (B) Cell adhesion was assessed in MCF7 cells transfected with NFI-C-expressing or NFI-C-siRNA constructs. Data are presented as the mean ± SD of triplicate experiments. (C) Migration was analyzed by wound healing assays in MCF7 cell transfected with NFI-C-expressing or NFI-C-siRNA constructs or treated with TGF-β (Magnification: 400×). (D) The invasion capacity of MCF7 cells, which were transfected with NFI-C-expressing or NFI-C-siRNA constructs, or treated with TGF-β was determined by matrigel-coated transwell assays. Average cell counts from representative fields for each condition are given as mean ± S.D. (E) The effect of NFI-C on EMT of breast cancer cells was analyzed using gene expression data collected from atypical ductal hyperplasia with or without breast cancer in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (GSE 2429). The mean and standard variants were calculated from four biological replicates for both activity and mRNA levels of NFI-C, KLF4, E-cadherin, TIAM1 (invasion activator), and SCAI (invasion suppressor). * denotes values significantly different from the control (P < 0.01). ADH: Atypical ductal hyperplasia.