TNF and adenocarcinoma: To study the EMT process in a cell-based model, A549 cells — human alveolar epithelial cells from adenocarcinoma — were stimulated with TGFbeta (2 ng/ml), TNFalpha (12.5 ng/ml), their combination or left untreated; the characterization of EMT was performed by microscopy, flow cytometric analysis, immunofluorescent assay, and gene expression profiling (see Material and Methods).