Fig. 4: DCN suppresses aggressiveness in IBC by regulating the E-cadherin–EGFR axis.

a E-cadherin knockdown in IBC cells results in the inhibition of EGFR signaling but does not affect DCN expression. E-cadherin knockdown in IBC cells lines was achieved by transduction with two independent lentiviral shRNAs. Total cell lysates were analyzed by western blotting for EGFR pathway analysis. GAPDH served as a loading control. b–f E-cadherin knockdown in IBC cell lines suppresses colony formation (b), migration (c), invasion (d), primary mammosphere formation (e), and secondary mammosphere formation (f). g Restoring E-cadherin rescues EGFR signaling in DCN-overexpressing IBC cells. Flag-E-cadherin plasmid was transfected into DCN-overexpressing IBC cell lines for 48 h and cell lysates were subjected to western blotting. h and i Restoring E-cadherin increases migration (h) and invasion (i) in DCN-overexpressing SUM149 and BCX010 IBC cell lines. P values are from Student’s unpaired t tests. Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. Data shown are representative of three independent experiments.