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Figure 4. Withaferin A suppressed metastatic potential via modulating signaling pathways participating in invasive tumor activity. (a) Withaferin A treatment was able to suppress interferon-γ-induced invasive ability in both parental (P) and to floating (F) cells; (b) withaferin A treatment also suppressed the expression of CXCR4 expression even under the stimulation of interferon-γ. The difference between F cells treated with 2.5 μmol/L withaferin A and F cells without withaferin A treatment is significant (P < 0.01) regardless of whether or not interferon-γ (10 U/mL) was used to stimulate F cells; (c) Western blot analysis of withaferin A-mediated suppression in invasive ability in F cells. Several major signaling pathways including Akt, ERK, CXCR4, GRK3/2 and STAT3, all of which are known to participate in cell mobility, appeared to be down-regulated by withaferin A treatment in a dose-dependent manner