Results demonstrated that LRIG1 overexpression has an effect on increasing apoptosis. With Annexin V-PE staining, early apoptosis was clearly detectable in the two bladder cancer cells treated with transfection of LRIG1. Compared to the corresponding vector control, the cell apoptotic rates of LRIG1 were significantly increased in the two cells (P < 0.05). Figure 4 LRIG1 gene transfection induced apoptosis and inhibit invasion in bladder

cancer cells. A: LRIG1 gene transfection induced apoptosis in human T24 and Torin 2 in vivo 5637 cell lines by flow cytometry analysis. B: The percentages are displyed showing the annexin V positive/7-aad negative fraction. Columns are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *P < 0.01 for LRIG1 cDNA versus vector. C: Effect of LRIG1 gene transfection 24 h on the cell invasion of human bladder cancer cells. D: Data showed transfection of LRIG1 cDNA could significantly inhibit the cell invasion as compared with vector cells (*P < 0.05). All experiments were repeated at least three times. We next detected whether LRIG1 regulated cell invasion and motility by using the Matrigel in vitro invasion assay. As shown in Figure 4C,D, LRIG1 cDNA exerted

a profound effect on cell invasion in the two bladder cancer cells. Compared with the vector and control cells, the T24 and 5637 cells transfected with LRIG1 cDNA, showed a considerably lower invasion potential. These observations Etomoxir price indicated that the enhanced expression of LRIG1 was associated with reversed invasive ability. Effect of LRIG1 gene transfection on EGFR signaling To further demonstrate overexpression of LRIG1 inducing the observed growth inhibition and apoptosis that might correlate with downstream EGFR signaling, we examined the effect of LRIG1 gene transfection on the expression of several key regulators involved in the EGFR signaling pathway. As shown in Figure 5A, western blot analysis detected that upregulation of LRIG1 resulted in a significant reduction in phosphorylation of EGFR (p-EGFR) and EGFR

in T24 and 5637 cells. The level of activated mitogen-activated protein kinase (p-MAPK), a downstream regulator of EGFR signaling, showed remarkable decrease in the face of upregulation Amylase of LRIG1. Downregulation of p-AKT expression was also observed with LRIG1 cDNA transfection, compared with the vector control. Figure 5 Effect of LRIG1 gene transfection on protein expression of several key regulators involved in the EGFR signaling pathway (A), caspase-8, MMP-2 and MMP-9 (B) of T24 and 5637 cells. Caspases represent central regulators of apoptosis. we examined the levels of the active form of caspase-8 to detect the apoptotic response. As shown in Figure 5B, compared with the vector control, the expression of active (cleaved) caspase-8 in the two bladder cancer cells was significantly increased treated with LRIG1 gene. We next measured the level of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in this two bladder cancer cells.