Fig. 7
Expression levels of vimentin and LAD1 and histological differentiation of the public cancer dataset. (a) Representative immunofluorescent images of HSC-3 and dot plots of vimentin-positive cell ratio in HSC-2, HSC-3, and HSC-4 cells. (b) A confocal immunofluorescence image of the vertical section of HSC-4 cells cultured on the collagen gel for LAD1 (red) and vimentin (green) with nuclear staining (Hoechst, blue). (c) Fluorescent intensity plot of vimentin (green) and LAD1 (red) on the yellow arrow in panel (b). (d) The histological grades of LAD1-mRNA high and low expression groups in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma dataset of the cancer genome atlas; scale bars: 200 μm (a) and 20 μm (b). Bars in the chart, means ± s.e.; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. G1, well-differentiated; G2, moderately-differentiated; G3, poorly-differentiated; G4, undifferentiated; GX, not assessed. In LAD1-knockdown cells, the ratio of vimentin-positive cells significantly increased, and HSC-3 cells showed a high vimentin-positive percentage in LAD1-knockdown conditions (a). In the section of HSC-4 cells cultured on collagen gel, stacked cells on the gel were positive for LAD1 (red); however, invading cells in the gel showed strong positivity for vimentin (green) (b). In the measurement of fluorescence intensity (c), the vimentin intensity (green line) gradually increased from the surface (asterisks) to the deeper parts (daggers). Reciprocally, the LAD1 intensity (red line) was higher in surface cells (asterisks) but lower in deeper cells (daggers). Public database analysis via cBioportal revealed a significant increased rate (p < 0.05) of well-differentiated histology (G1) in the LAD1-mRNA high-expressing squamous cell carcinoma group.
