Fig. 4
GPNMB participation in the EMT process. A. Expression of GPNMB in the lung tissue of patients with IPF was significantly higher than that of the healthy group in the GEO database (*P < 0.05). B. Immunohistochemical staining showing that GPNMB was expressed on epithelial cells. Expression was higher in the experimental group than in the control group, scale bar: 20 μm. C. Representative western blot results showing that the expression of GPNMB was elevated over time in MLE-12 cells. D. Representative western blot results showing that the downregulation of GPNMB partially reversed the SiO2-induced upregulation of FN1, COL1, and α-SMA. E. CCK-8 assay results: #P < 0.05 indicates that the si-Gpnmb group had lower cell viability levels after SiO2 treatment than the si-nc group. *P < 0.05 indicates a significant increase in the viability of MLE-12 cells after 24 h of SiO2 treatment compared to the Con-nc group. F. Wound-healing experiments showing that downregulation of Gpnmb expression attenuated SiO2-induced cell migration. G. Phalloidin assay showing that the cytoskeleton distribution of microfilaments was coarser in the experimental group than in the control group, and the cytoskeleton level in the si-Gpnmb group was lower than that in the si-nc group, scale bar: 20 μm