Figure 4

Decreased Beta-catenin expression corresponds with marked membrane ruffling, increase in nuclear size and nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio in EMAP II treated cells. Immunofluorescent staining of AT II cellular membranes indicate that transdifferentiating AT II cells develop a cobblestone appearance of epithelial like polygonal shaped cells (A, B). Transdifferentiating AT II cells treated with EMAP II lack the polygonal shape (C, D), exhibit membrane ruffling (arrows, D), and have decreased β-catenin expression of at day 4 (E, F). In addition, EMAP II treated cells demonstrated a larger nuclear size and nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio as compared to controls (G, H). DAPI denotes nuclear staining. E-cadherin expression was not significantly different between EMAP II and control cells (I, J) Scale bar = 25 μ.