Cell lysates were prepared using complete lysis buffer (EMD Millipore, San Diego, CA) with protease and phosphatase inhibitor cocktails (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN). Protein quantification was performed using DC protein assay from Bio-Rad (Hercules, and CA). Western blot analysis was performed as described previously (Goc et al., 2013 (link); Sabbineni et al., 2018 (link)). Antibodies used include stromelysin1, N-cadherin, and GAPDH from Cell Signaling Technology (Danvers, MA), αSMA, and β-actin from Sigma (St. Louis, MO), and ALK5 from Abcam (Cambridge, MA). Band densitometry was done using NIH Image J software.