Fig. 5

EN1 promotes the malignant process in SACC cells by activating the PI3K-AKT signalling pathway. A Volcano plot depicting the differentially expressed genes and their distribution in EN1 high-expression versus control cells. The abscissa is log2 fold change, and the ordinate is -log10 (adjusted p-value). Red nodes are upregulated, and green nodes are downregulated differentially expressed genes; blue nodes are not significant. B Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis terms for the differentially expressed genes: biological process (BP), cellular component (CC), and molecular function (MF). The abscissa is the GO term, and the ordinate is -log10 (adjusted p-value). C Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis for the differentially expressed genes. The abscissa is the gene ratio, and the ordinate is the pathway name. Node size indicates the number of genes enriched in the pathway, and node colour indicates the adjusted p-value. The PI3K-AKT pathway was enriched. D–G PI3K, P-PI3K, AKT, and P-AKT levels in EN1-overexpressing, and EN1 knockdown and their relative control cells. F–G are quantitative results of the relative expression of protein detected by western blot shown in (D–E). H Wound healing assays were used to analyse EN1-ove SACC cell migration after treatment with or without LY294002. I–K Transwell assays were used to analyse EN1-ove SACC cell migration and invasion ability with or without LY294002 treatment. L–M Western blot analysis of EMT-related proteins in EN1-ove SACC cells with or without LY294002 treatment. M is the quantification of the data shown in (L). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, and ns (not significant) by t-test