Fig. 3

Downregulating PA2G4 inhibits mobilities of HCC cells in vitro and lung metastasis in vivo. A, B Western blot (A) and qRT-PCR (B) analysis of PA2G4 knocking down efficacy in the indicated cell lines. Data normalized to GAPDH and are shown as the fold change to their respective control cells. C Representative images of migration and invasion after knocking down PA2G4 expression in the indicated cells (upper panel). Scale bar, black bar, 100 μm. Quantification of cells migrated and invaded in each group (lower panel). D Phalloidin staining for F-actin (red) in the indicated HCC cells with PA2G4 knocked down. DAPI (blue) for nuclei. Magnification, 400-fold. E Western blot analyses of the indicated protein level after knocking down PA2G4. GAPDH as loading control. F Lung metastases in mice bearing HLF/shPA2G4-1# and their control cells. H&E staining of lung metastatic foci (F1); Lung metastasis incidence (F2) and metastatic numbers (F3) were calculated. Scale bar: red bar, 200 μm in the overview images; 50 μm in the magnified images. Data was shown as Mean ± SD. Two-tailed Student t test for (B, C and F3). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. scr: scramble; sh: small inference RNA. n.s.: no significance