Figure 1.

Effects of curcumin on tumor growth in a xenograft model. Tumors were harvested from a subset of HepG2 tumor mice on day 24 following cell injection. Ten days after inoculation, mice were treated with 100 mg/kg curcumin or an equal volume of the solvent daily for two weeks. (a) Images of tumors in the control and curcumin groups. (b) Tumor volume was measured at the end of the experiment. (c) The expression of miR-21 and TIMP3 mRNA was determined by RT-qPCR assay in vivo. (d, e) The expression of TIMP3 protein was determined by IHC assay in vivo. (f) The expression of TIMP3, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2 proteins was determined by western blot assay in vivo. n = 6 per group. ^∗P < 0.05 and ^∗∗P < 0.01 vs. the control group.