Fig. 1.

HCC in HBx transgenic mice is mainly supplied by the HA. (A) Schematic diagram of the protocol used to measure the changes in pO₂, blood flow, and the expression of hypoxic markers following transient HAL of the left lobe of liver. The black arrow indicates the continuous monitoring of pO₂ and blood flow with combined OxyLite/OxyFlo probes inserted into the liver. The green and red arrows indicate the time for HAL and HAL release, respectively. The blue diamond indicates the sacrifice point. (B and C) Hypoxia can be created in the HCC of the HBx transgenic mice by HAL. The probes were inserted into different parts of the liver in mice at different ages, including the left liver lobe of wild-type mice and precancerous HBx transgenic mice, as well as the HCC of HBx transgenic mice, to continuously monitor the pO₂ (B) and blood flow (C) during the transient HAL treatment period. (D and E) The expression of hypoxic markers, such as EPO and HIF-1α, can be induced in the HCC of HBx transgenic mice following HAL for 2 h. Tissues from different parts of the left lobe of the liver were collected before and 2 h after L-HAL. The tumor and nontumor parts of the right lobe of the liver were also collected for comparison. The EPO mRNA levels (D) and HIF-1α protein levels (E) in all samples were evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. The nontumor tissue of left liver lobe before L-HAL was used as a control.