Fig. 6
SNAIL knockdown attenuated TiO2 NP-induced EndMT in HUVECs in vitro. a siSNAIL treatment suppressed the expression of SNAIL in a dose-dependent manner. b TiO2 NP treatment enhanced cell migration, whereas siSNAIL treatment attenuated the effect. c, d The qPCR results revealed that TiO2 activated TGF-β-SNAIL-mediated EndMT in the HUVECs (enhanced TGFB, SNAIL, SMAD2, SMAD3, SAMD4, CDH2, and VIM), which was abrogated by knockdown of SNAIL. Immunofluorescence staining suggested that TiO2 treatment induced the mesenchymal marker vimentin in HUVECs, which was restrained by siSNAIL treatment. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. n = 3 independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 as compared with the normal control (NC); #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01 as compared with the TiO2 group