Fig 1.
Identification of ALDHhigh tumor cells.
(A) Flow cytometry sorting of ALDHhigh and ALDHlow tumor cells; (B) Sphere forming ability of ALDHhigh and ALDHlow cells; (C) Plate colony formation ability of ALDHhigh and ALDHlow cells; Scale bar: 50 μm; *P <0.05.
Fig 2.
Effect of SB525334 on the malignant behavior of CSCs.
(A) The spheres numbers and colony numbers for experimental group and control group (The cells’ self-renewal ability and colony forming ability in the experimental group are significantly weakened); (B) The migration ability of CSCs (The migration ability of CSCs in the experimental group is significantly weakened); (C) The invasion ability of CSCs (It is weakened in the experimental group); Scale bar: 50 μm; *P <0.05.
Fig 3.
Effect of SB525334 on TGF-β pathway and EMT in CSCs.
(A) mRNA expression (A) and protein expression (B) levels of TGF-β, Smad2, p-Smad2, Smad3, p-Smad3, and Smad4 in CSCs with and without the use of SB525334; (C) mRNA and protein expressions of E-cadherin, Snail and Vimentin in CSCs with and without the use of SB525334; *P <0.05.