Figure 4

FAK promotes MLE-15 cell migration and proliferation in vitro. (A) A wound healing assay was performed as described in the methods, and images were acquired with a light microscope (representative images as shown). The graphs present the percentage wound recovery in cells that received different treatments after 72 h of cell migration. Ectopic FAK expression promoted wound closure, and this was blocked by a FAK inhibitor or FAK siRNA. (B) Cells received various pre-treatments and were then cultured for 72 h. Cell proliferation was measured using WST-1. The results showed that FAK overexpression increased cell proliferation compared to that in the controls transfected vector transfection, whereas a FAK inhibitor inhibited cell proliferation induced by AF. Additionally, FAK siRNA decreased cell proliferation. All results are representative of data from experiments performed in triplicate. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 by two-tailed t test). The pre-treatments are as follows: control: no treatment; CS: cell stretch only; AF: ectopic FAK expression (FAK recombinant adenovirus transfection); siRNA: FAK knockdown; DMSO: treated with DMSO; FAK inhibitor: treated with a FAK inhibitor; scramble: treated with scramble probe.