Influence of up-regulation of Notch ligand DLL4 on biological behaviors of human gastric cancer cells

Figure 1 Up-regulation of Delta-like ligand 4 changed downstream gene expression in SGC7901 cells. A: Western blotting confirmed the up-regulation of Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) in the SGC7901-DLL4 group at the protein level; B: Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to assess Notch1, DLL4, and downstream genes HES1, HES5, HEY1, as well as the matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, and the adhesion protein E-cadherin at the mRNA level. The results showed increased expression of DLL4, HES5, MMP-2, and MMP-9, but no significant change of HES1 and HEY1 (^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01 vs the SGC7901-vector group). Data show mean ± SD of gene expression compared with the control group. Endogenous references was glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase; SGC7901-vector: SGC7901 cells transfected with an empty vector; SGC7901-DLL4: SGC7901 cells transfected with a vector encoding human DLL4 gene; Control: Non-transfected SGC7901 cells.