Fig. 5

ELN induces epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in human colon cancer epithelial cells. Human colon cancer epithelial cells (Caco-2) were seeded onto plates coated with recombinant elastin proteins. Control plates were coated with PBS only. Cells were cultured in medium with (or without) ELN peptide for 48 h a Total protein were collected from cell lysates and α-SMA, vimentin (VIM) and E-cadherin proteins were assessed by immunoblot. Fold change of densitometry of b α-SMA c VIM and d E-cadherin were normalized to β-actin. n = 4, Results are mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001 compared to cells cultured in normal media on control plates. ††† < 0.001, †††† < 0.0001 compared to cells cultured in medium containing ELN peptide on control plates. #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01, ###P < 0.001 compared to cell cultured in normal medium on ELN coated plates. Uncropped blots were shown in Additional file 1: Fig. S4