Epithelial-mesenchymal transition regulated by p38/MAPK signaling pathways participates in vasculogenic mimicry formation in SHG44 cells transfected with TGF-α cDNA loaded lentivirus in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

TGF-α-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in tumor progression. We assessed whether the TGF-α-induced EMT contributed to vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation in glioma, we established an SHG44 cell line stably transfected with TGF-α cDNA loaded lentivirus. SB203580 was employed to inhibit the TGF-α-induced EMT. The results showed that the VM forming ability of cells could be improved by TGF-α overexpression. The migration and invasion capabilities of cells were also enhanced due to EMT. SB203580 was able to weaken cell migration, invasion and VM forming abilities via blocking p38/MAPK signaling pathways, but it had tiny influence on MMP/LAMC2 chain. Consequently, we concluded that EMT inhibition via p38/MAPK signaling pathways would partly impair TGF-α-induced VM formation in glioma.