Fig. 2
TSPAN15 promotes OSCC metastasis. a The mRNA and protein levels of TSPAN15 were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot analysis in TSPAN15- or vector-transfected cells. β-actin was used as an endogenous control. The data are represented as the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. **P < 0.001, Student’s t-test. b Representatives and summary of invasion assay showing that overexpression of TSPAN15 promoted cell invasion. Scale bar, 200 µm. The values are expressed as the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. **P < 0.001, Student’s t-test. c Representatives and summary of pulmonary metastatic nodules formed in nude mice intravenously injected with TSPAN15- or Vec-transfected cells. Black arrow indicates the pulmonary metastatic nodules. Pulmonary nodules invaded by tumor cells were confirmed by H&E staining (scale bar, 50 µm). The values are expressed as the mean ± s.d. of six mice. *P < 0.01, Student’s t-test. d Two shRNAs (shT15-1 and shT15-2) against TSPAN15 effectively silenced TSPAN15 expression as detected by qRT-PCR and western blotting. Negative control shRNA (shNC) and β-actin were used as negative and endogenous controls, respectively. The data are represented as the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. **P < 0.001, ANOVA with post hoc test. e Representatives and summary of invasion assay showing that knockdown of TSPAN15 effectively inhibited cell invasion. Scale bar, 200 µm. The values are expressed as the mean ± s.d. of three independent experiments. **P < 0.001, ANOVA with post hoc test. f Representatives and summary of pulmonary metastatic nodules formed in nude mice intravenously injected with shT15-1, shT15-2 or shNC-transfected KYSE30 cells. Black arrow indicates the pulmonary metastatic nodule. Corresponding H&E staining images were also displayed. Scale bar, 50 µm. The values are expressed as the mean ± s.d. of six mice. *P < 0.01, ANOVA with post hoc test
