Fig. 5. PERK downregulation compromises the inhibition of HC growth induced by ¹²⁵I and LBP in SMMC7721 xenograft tumors in nude mice.

To further verify the effect of the PERK-eIF2α-ATF4-CHOP pathway on ¹²⁵I-mediated apoptosis and anti-proliferation of HCC cells, SMMC7721 cells transfected with PERK-RNAi or Control-RNAi xenograft tumors were treated with ¹²⁵I and LBP. When the volume of the tumors reached 500 mm³, the mice were randomly divided to three groups with four mice in each group. After 30 days of treatment, the mice were killed and the tumors were exfoliated. The tumor weight (b) and diameters (c) were measured every other day for 30 days. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test was utilized to analyze the subcutaneous tumor growth. All the experiments were performed in triplicate and the data are presented as the mean ± SD. The t-test was used for data analysis. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01