Fig. 8

Schematic mechanism of zinc-induced EMT in lung cancer cells. Zinc exposure was found to increase the intracellular superoxide anion and induce EMT phenotypes in lung cancer cells by up-regulating of EMT markers (snail, slug, N-cadherin and vimentin) and down-regulating of E-cadherin protein. Reorganization of adhesion and cytoskeleton proteins resulted in mesenchymal morphology and facilitated aggressive behaviors, including migration, invasion and tumorigenicity in zinc-treated cells. Importantly, zinc-induced lung cancer EMT was clearly inhibited by superoxide anion inhibitor (MnTBAP), suggesting that the induction of the aggressive EMT phenotypes was dependent on zinc-induced superoxide anion generation