Cells were subjected to the following analyses of immunofluorescence and migration assay. In migration assays, four wounds were made in each condition, and cell migration was presented by the average of distance differences between 30 hr and 0 hr. All experiments have been conducted for more than three times, and representative results were included in the text. Statistical analysis Kappa test was used to evaluate the association between the expressions of Hh pathway components and EMT markers, and between

Gli1 and recurrence/metastasis. IHC scores of 1–3 were grouped as positive “+” , and 0 was grouped as negative “-” for dichotomized analysis. Non-parametric BIIB057 concentration Kendall’s tau-b A-1155463 mouse statistics was used to determine the correlation between IHC staining of Hh components. Two-sided student’s t-test was performed for migration assays. A p value <0.05 was indicated as *, 0.01 as **, and 0.001 as *** in corresponding figures. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 17.0 software. Results and discussion Aberrant activation of the Shh pathway in lung SCC We first investigated

the protein expression of key Shh pathway components in lung SCC tissue samples. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens were collected from 177 lung SCC patients who underwent surgical resection at the Lung Cancer Center at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital. The protein expressions of Shh, Smo, Ptch1 and Gli1 were characterized by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and scored on a scale of 0–3 (negative, mild positive, positive, and strong positive). Representative samples this website in each score category were summarized in Figure 1A. More than 90% of the lung SCC tissue samples examined were positive for the signal molecule Shh, while 53% and 61% were positive for downstream components and transcriptional targets

Ptch1 and Gli1 respectively (Figure 1B). Previous studies have demonstrated limited expressions of Shh components in normal lung tissues at the mRNA and protein levels in NSCLC [27, 28], therefore the expression of key Shh signaling components indicates the activation of Shh pathway. No significant association was found Histamine H2 receptor between expressions of Shh, Smo, Ptch1 and Gli1 and patients’ characteristics (sex, age, tumor size, or degree of tumor differentiation) (Table 1) (P > 0.05, data note shown). Figure 1 Aberrant activation of the Shh pathway in lung SCC. (A) Representative protein expression of Shh, Smo, Ptch1 and Gli1 by IHC staining, scored as 0 (negative), 1 (mild positive), 2 (positive), and 3 (strong positive). (B) Expression distributions of Shh, Smo, Ptch1 and Gli1 in 177 patient tissue specimens in the Tianjin cohort. (C) Association between the expressions of Hh pathway components. Kendall’s tau-b statsitcs was used to determine the correlation between proteins. The correlation coefficient r and p values were presented in (C). Kappa test was also performed with IHC scores of 1–3 grouped as “+”, 0 as “-”.