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Updated: May 16, 2026

Spheroid Assay to Measure TGF-β-induced Invasion
Published on: November 16, 2011
Transforming growth factor-β transiently induces vimentin expression and invasive capacity in a canine mammary gland
1Laboratory of Veterinary Surgery, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
Abstract:
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial event that occurs during cancer metastasis and can be induced by transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) in various tumor cells in vitro. However, little is known about the effects of TGF-β in canine mammary gland tumors (CMGTs). Here, we investigated the role of TGF-β in CMGT. We observed that treatment of the CMGT cell line CHMp13a with TGF-β1 leads to transient induction of the mesenchymal marker vimentin. Real-time measurements of cellular electrical impedance also showed that CMGT invasiveness is transiently increased by TGF-β1 treatment, but is reversed after prolonged stimulation. This phenomenon is similar to the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET, the reverse phenomenon of EMT), and a process that is implicated in the establishment of secondary metastatic lesions.

