Transforming growth factor β

Recombinant Human TGF‐β₁(100‐21) was obtained from PeproTech (Rocky Hill, NJ, USA). The antibodies used were as follows: E‐cadherin (1:1000, #14472), N‐cadherin (1:1000, #14255), Vimentin (1:1000, #5741), Smad2/3(1:1000, #5678), p‐Smad2/3 (Ser465/467/ser423/425, 1:1000, #8828), beta‐catenin (1:1000, #9562) were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (CST, Danvers, MA). Transforming growth factor‐β (1:1000, sc‐146) and α‐SMA (1:1000, sc‐53015) were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Dallas, TX, USA). FITC Mouse Anti‐Human CD51/CD61 (555505; BD biosciences, San Jose, CA, USA) and PE Mouse Anti‐Human CD106 were obtained from BD biosciences. Tetraspanin 1 (1:200, NBP2‐33867) was purchased from Novus Biologicals (LLC, Littleton Co., Centennial, CO, USA). Bleomycin was obtained from Sigma (St. Louis, MO).

We used specific antibodies against Transforming Growth Factor-β, Phospho Smad 3, Smad 3 and BMP7 (Santa-Cruz, France) and β actin as loading control (A1978; Sigma Aldrich, France).