Depletion of GABPA affects the cytoskeleton and migratory properties of MCF10A cells.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Immunofluorescent images of MCF10A cells transfected with the indicated siRNA species, starved for EGF for 48 hours, stimulated with media containing EGF for 24 hours and stained with phalloidin and with Hoechst dye to visualise the actin cytoskeleton and nuclei, respectively. Red arrows – membrane protrusions, white arrowheads – subcortical actin, dashed lines – enlarged cell bodies. (<b>B</b>) RT-PCR quantification of the effect of siGABPA transfection on GABPA mRNA levels. Chart shows average values from three biological repeats with standard deviation. Statistical significance was determined in Student's t-test (*P<0.01). (<b>C</b>) Western blot analysis showing the effect of siGABPA transfection on GABPA mRNA levels. ERK2 levels are shown as a loading control. Each lane was taken from the same western blot to eliminate irrelevant lanes. (<b>D</b>) Quantification of the percentage of cells located on the edges of clusters exhibiting membrane protrusions upon transfection with siGAPDH (control) or siGABPA. Bars show average values from three biological repeats with standard deviations; in each repeat, three fields were scored. (<b>E</b>) Representative images of wounds created in monolayers of MCF10A cells transfected with the indicated siRNA species, starved for EGF for 48 hours, subsequently stimulated with media containing EGF and imaged for 15 hours. Black line marks borders of cell-free areas. (<b>F</b>) Cell-free areas in the images obtained as described in (E) for the siGABPA transfection were measured at hourly intervals and normalised to siGAPDH-transfected control. Shown are average values from three biological repeats with standard deviations. (<b>G and H</b>) MCF10A cells were transfected with the indicated siRNAs, starved for EGF for 48 hours, stimulated with media containing 20 ng/ml EGF and imaged for 24 hours. (<b>G</b>) Box plots show the distributions of lengths of trajectories travelled by MCF10A cells transfected with the indicated siRNA species between t = 1 h and t = 7 h of imaging. Data was obtained in four biological repeats of the experiment, and in each case ten cells were manually tracked. The green and pale yellow areas correspond to the second and third quartile of the distribution, respectively. The shaded area represents the distribution of distances covered in control siGAPDH-transfected cells. P-values were obtained in a Smirnov-Kolomogorov test (*P<0.05). (<b>H</b>) Distribution of the trajectories travelled by cells plotted in (G).