Fig. 6

CeRNA abundance determines EMT reversibility in A549 cells. a Morphologies of untreated A549 cells. b Morphologies of A549 cells treated with 4 ng/ml of TGF-β for 7 days to induce EMT. c Morphologies of cells treated by 4 ng/ml TGF-β for 7 days followed by TGF-β removal and treated with control siRNA for 3 days. d Morphologies of cells treated by 4 ng/ml TGF-β for 7 days followed by TGF-β removal and treated with control UTR for 3 days. e Morphologies of cells treated by 4 ng/ml TGF-β for 7 days followed by TGF-β removal and treated with TGFBI UTR for 3 days. f Morphologies of cells treated by 4 ng/ml TGF-β for 7 days followed by TGF-β removal and treated with antagomiR-21 for 3 days. g Cells in (a–f) were subjected to flow cytometry analysis by double staining with CDH1 and VIM antibodies and quantified into E (epithelial cells, gray bars) and M (mesenchymal cells, white bars). The images in (a–f) are representative of three independent biological replicates. Scale bars: 100 μm. n = 3; error bars indicate the means ± s.d.