EpEX-Fc inhibits EGF-mediated EMT through repression of EMT-TF activation.

(A) FaDu and Kyse30 cells were either kept untreated (control) or were treated with Fc (10 nM), EGFlow (1.8 nM), EGFhigh (9 nM), EpEX-Fc (1–50 nM), or EGFhigh in combination with increasing concentrations of EpEX-Fc (1–50 nM). Shown are representative micrograph pictures of cells after 48 hr (Kyse30) and 72 hr (FaDu) from n = 3 independent experiments. (B) FaDu and Kyse30 cells were either kept untreated (control) or were treated with Fc (10 nM), EGFlow (1.8 nM), EGFhigh (9 nM), EpEX-Fc (10 nM), or EGFhigh in combination with EpEX-Fc (10 nM). After 6 hr and 72 hr, mRNA transcript levels of Snail, Zeb1, and Slug were assessed by qRT-PCR with specific primers. Shown are means with SDs from n = 3 independent experiments performed in triplicates. One-way ANOVA with post hoc multiple testing and Bonferroni correction * p-value S1 Data. EGF, epidermal growth factor; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition; EMT-TF, EMT transcription factor; Fc, fragment crystallizable region; ns, not significant; qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time PCR; SD, standard deviation; Zeb1, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1.