Fig. 1: Basal BRCA cells express high levels of SNAI1 and are highly mesenchymal.
From: Loss of SNAI1 induces cellular plasticity in invasive triple-negative breast cancer cells
A Expression of SNAI1 in various subtypes of human BRCA retrieved from TCGA datasets (Basal n = 171, HER2 n = 78, Luminal A n = 499, Luminal B n = 197). The basal subtype was used as a reference to estimate the difference in SNAI1 expression using Wilcoxon rank-sum test (U test). Higher SNAI1 levels correlate with shorter relapse-free survival (RFS, n = 392) (B) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS, n = 306) (C) in human basal BRCA patients. Basal BRCA samples were stratified and compared in the KM plotter database using auto select cut-off. D RT-qPCR analysis of SNAI1 mRNA levels in MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T (basal), ZR-75-1 and MCF-7 (luminal A) BRCA cells. Values represent fold-change of mRNA expression normalized to GAPDH and expressed relative to the level in MDA-MB-231 cells. E Protein expression levels of SNAI1 in MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T (basal), ZR-75-1 and MCF-7 (luminal A) BRCA cells. HP95 serves as loading control. Stars indicate the protein bands that are specific for SNAI1. F Protein expression levels of the epithelial markers CDH1, EPCAM, of the mesenchymal marker FN1, and of the EMT-TFs SNAI2 and ZEB1 in MDA-MB-231, Hs578T, ZR-75-1 and MCF-7 cells. G RT-qPCR analysis of mRNA levels for each of the three SNAI1 exons in MDA-MB-231-WT and SNAI1-KO cells. Values represent relative mRNA expression normalized to GAPDH. Data in D are presented as mean values of three biological replicates ± SEM and in G as mean values of five biological replicates ± SEM, each in technical triplicates and p-values are shown based on two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-test. E and F show representative immunoblots of three independent biological replicates along with molecular mass markers in kDa. p-values *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001.
