Fig. 2.

Knockdown of Gal-1 diminished HCC cell aggressiveness in vitro and in vivo. a. Knockdown of Gal-1 expression verified by western blot in both knockdown clones in two cell lines, MHCC97L and BEL7402. b. Migration assays using shGal1 cells reduced the number of cells migrated in both cells lines. c. Invasion assays with knocked down Gal-1 in cells resulted in fewer number of cells invaded in both cell lines. d. Soft agar assay results show fewer colonies formed when Gal-1 was knocked down. Representative fields for each group are also presented. e. Subcutaneous injection of shGal1 cells in BALB/c nude mice reduced in vivo tumor growth compared to shCtrl cells, indicated by the reduced bioluminescent signal and tumor volume (n = 5). f. Excised tumors are significantly smaller in tumor weight when Gal-1 was knocked down compared to shCtrl. g. Orthotopic implantation of tumors into liver of nude mice revealed lower bioluminescent signals. h. The reduced luciferase signal in shGal1 tumors compared to shCtrl-derived tumors represent reduced metastatic events when Gal-1 has been knocked down. Results are expressed as mean +/− SD. P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant