Fig. 2. TPA-tmTRAIL construct-mediated TRAIL expression and cell death in HCC. Human HCC Huh-7 and HepG2 cells at 60% confluency were transfected with the TPA-tmTRAIL plasmid. The untreated cells and transfection reagent alone were used as controls. Cells were transfected with the TPA plasmid for 48 hours at 37 °C. TRAIL expression from the transfected cells was determined by qPCR (A) and ELISA (B). Cell viability was measured using the MTT assay (C) and cell morphology was imaged under a light microscope (D). Images were taken using 10× objective lens. Evaluation of apoptotic gene expression by qPCR (E). Translational expression of PARP was measured by western blotting to confirm the result at the transcriptional level (F). Data were normalised to control untreated cells and shown as fold change relative to control. All results are shown as mean ± SD. All experiments were conducted in triplicate, except for western blot analysis, which was performed in duplicate. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001.