Epithelial mesenchymal transition of non–small–cell lung cancer cells A549 induced by SPHK1

ObjectiveTo explore the effect and molecular mechanism of SPHK1 in the invasion and metastasis process of non–small–cell lung cancer cells (A549).MethodsRecombinant retrovirus was used to mediate the production of A549/vector, A549/SPHK1, A549/scramble, and A549/SPHKl/RNAi that stably expressed or silenced SPHK1. The invasion and migration capacities of A549 cells overexpressing or silencing SPHK1 were determined using Transwell invasion assay and scratch wound repair experiment. The protein and mRNA expression levels of E–cadherin, fibronectin, vimentin in A549/vector, A549/SPHK1, A549/scramble, A549/SPHK1/RNAi were detected with Western blot (WB) and quantitative PCR (QPCR) methods, respectively.ResultsTranswell invasion assay and scratch wound repair experiments showed that over–expression of SPHK1 obviously enhanced the invasion and migration capacities of A549 cells. WB and QPCR detection results showed that, the expression of E–cadherin (a molecular marker of epithelial cells) and fibronectin, vimentin (molecular markers of mesenchymal cells) in A549 cells was upregulated after overexpression of SPHK1; while SPHK1 silencing significantly reduced the invasion and metastasis capacities of A549 cells, upregulated the expression of molecular marker of epithelial cells, and downregulated the expression of molecular marker of mesenchymal cells.ConclusionsSPHK1 promotes epithelial mesenchymal transition of non–small–cell lung cancer cells and affects the invasion and metastasis capacities of these cells.