Cells were washed with cold PBS, scraped into RIPA buffer and centrifuged. The cell lysates were subjected to 10% SDS-PAGE and transferred to a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hybridization transfer membrane. The primary antibodies used were as follows: CD44 (ProteinTech group), EGFR (Santa Cruz Laboratories), Snail (Cell Signaling Technology), p-EGFR (Santa Cruz Laboratories), p-AKT (Cell Signaling Technology), p-ERK (Santa Cruz Laboratories), KLF4 (Santa Cruz Laboratories), c-Myc (Santa Cruz Laboratories), Slug (Cell Signaling Technology), Snail (Cell Signaling Technology), Vinculin (Santa Cruz Laboratories). Secondary staining and detection were carried out in accordance with standard protocols (23 (link)).