MSCs pretreated by proinflammatory cytokines lead EMT of HCC cells and up-regulation of TGF-β in MSCs.

<p>(A) qPCR was used to detect changes in expression of EMT genes in SMMC-7721 HCC cells following co-culture with MSC after being stimulated by IFNγ and TNFα. Results presented represent mean ± SEM (n = 3); (B) Immunofluorescent staining of E-cadherin and Vimentin was performed in SMMC-7721 cells, nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (×200); (C) Western blot was used to detect the expression of N-cadherin, Twist and β-catenin in SMMC-7721 cells. PCR (D) and western-blot (E) were used to detected TGFβ expression in MSCs, and the results showed that TGFβ was overexpressed in MSCs stimulated by IFNγ and TNFα both on mRNA and protein levels. (F) Immunofluorescent staining was used to confirm that up-regulation of TGFβ in MSCs stimulated by combination of IFNγ and TNFα (×200).