Epithelial-mesenchymal transition regulated by p38/MAPK signaling pathways participates in vasculogenic mimicry formation in SHG44 cells transfected with TGF-β cDNA loaded lentivirus in vitro and in vivo

TGF-beta-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in tumor, progression. We assessed whether the TGF-beta-induced EMT contributed to vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation in glioma, we established an SHG44 cell line stably transfected with TGF-beta cDNA loaded lentivirus. SB203580 was employed to inhibit the TGF-beta-induced EMT. The results showed that the VM forming ability of cells could be improved by TGF-13 over expression. The migration and invasion capabilities of cells were also enhanced due to EMT. SB203580 was able to weaken cell migration, invasion and VM forming abilities via blocking p38/MAPK signaling pathways, but it had tiny influence on MMP/LAMC2 chain. Consequently, we concluded that EMT inhibition via p38/MAPK signaling pathways would partly impair TGF-beta-induced VM formation in glioma.