Journal: Molecular Therapy
Article Title: GTSE1-driven ZEB1 stabilization promotes pulmonary fibrosis through the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition
doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2024.09.029
Figure Lengend Snippet: Increase protein stability of ZEB1 mediates GTSE1-induced EMT (A) RT-PCR in cells transfected with shCTRL or sh GTSE1 with and without 8 Gy of IR. Small values above each blot reflect the relative intensity of the target mRNAs normalized to the endogenous control, gapdh . (B) Measurement of ZEB1 protein stability under a protein synthesis blockade from CHX. L132 cells were transfected with sh GTSE1 or Flag-GTSE1 and treated with 100 μg/mL CHX for various time periods. The graph shows the relative levels of ZEB1 protein as a fold change from its initial level. (C and D) The extent of ubiquitination of the ZEB1 protein was confirmed by immunoprecipitation and immunoblot analyses. (C) HEK 293T cells transfected with Flag-GTSE1 at 24 h. Cells were treated with 10 μM MG132 for 8 h. (D) siGTSE1 was co-transfected with HA-tagged ubiquitin in HEK 293T cells. (E) CDH1 promoter activity in HEK 293T cells was measured using a luciferase reporter assay after siGTSE1 transfection for 24 h. (F) ChIP assay was performed in GTSE1-deficient L132 cells. The chromatin was immunoprecipitated with an anti-ZEB1 antibody. Each precipitated DNA was analyzed by quantitative PCR using promoter-specific primers for CDH1 . (G) Immunoblots for EMT markers and (H) IF staining for F-actin in L132 cells co-transfected with Flag-tagged GTSE1 and si ZEB1 . (I) Cell migration of GTSE1-deficient L132 cells was assessed using a wound-healing assay after 24 and 48 h, with and without transfection with Flag-tagged ZEB1. Results are presented as a percentage of wound closure compared with the original volume. All graphs indicate the mean ± SEM. The fold change was calculated relative to the control. ∗, ∗∗, ∗∗∗, ∗∗∗∗ indicates p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001, p < 0.0001, respectively.
Article Snippet: To determine the EMT or FMT phenotype, we used both epithelial and fibroblast cells as previously described., , , L132 human pulmonary epithelial cells and WI-38 human fetal lung fibroblast cells were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA, USA).
Techniques: Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, Transfection, Control, Ubiquitin Proteomics, Immunoprecipitation, Western Blot, Activity Assay, Luciferase, Reporter Assay, Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Staining, Migration, Wound Healing Assay