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Updated: Oct 23, 2025
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Published on: June 10, 2016
Analyzing the Effect of Vitronectin on Cell Growth and Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition of Pulmonary Fibroblast
Ya Zeng1, Jiahua Yu1, Mina Liu1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 241 West Huaihai Road, Shanghai, China.
Purpose:
Vitronectin (VTN), a multifunctional glycoprotein, is involved in various biological and pathological processes. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of VTN on mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) of pulmonary fibroblast cells.
Methods:
Lentivirus encoding for VTN-specific shRNA was constructed and infected into the cultured fibroblast WI-38 cells. Real-time PCR and Western blot were applied to examine the expression of VTN in WI-38 cells. MTT assay was used to assess cell proliferation. Western blot was conducted to examine the expression of MET-related and apoptosis-related proteins.
Results:
The knockdown of VTN significantly inhibited the growth of WI-38 cells compared to the control group. Meanwhile, knockdown of VTN remarkably increased the expression of Bax and Caspase 3 compared with the control group. Furthermore, knockdown of VTN significantly promoted the expression of E-cadherin in comparison to control group.
Conclusions:
Knockdown of VTN promoted the expression of apoptosis-related factors, meanwhile, facilitated the MET process of fibroblast cells by regulating the expression of relevant factors. In sum, VTN performed a potential regulator in cell growth and MET of pulmonary fibroblast cells, which can be considered as a potential target for diagnose and therapy of relevant diseases.
