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. 2021 Feb 19;12(2):200. doi: 10.1038/s41419-021-03488-z

Fig. 3. Inhibition of TGFβ-SMAD signaling pathway accelerates c-Myc liver tumorigenesis in mice.

Fig. 3

a Study design. FVB/N mice were hydrodynamically injected (HTVi) with c-Myc/GFP-shLuciferase/SB (n = 9), c-Myc/GFP-shSmad2/SB (n = 6), c-Myc/GFP-shSmad3/SB (n = 8) and c-Myc/GFP-shSmad4/SB (n = 6) plasmids, respectively. Mice were monitored and sacrificed when moribund. b Survival curve showing that inhibition of Smad2, Smad3 or Smad4 accelerates c-Myc induced hepatocarcinogenesis in mice. Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test were applied. P-values were shown in the figure. c Representative images of tumors in the four groups at 5 weeks post injection (p.i.). d Comparison of cleaved caspase 3 (C-C3) positive cells percentages in the four groups. Student t-test was applied between each 2 groups for statistical analysis, *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001, N.S., no significance. e Representative images of cleaved caspase 3 (C-C3) immunohistochemical staining in c-Myc/shLuciferase (shLuciferase), c-Myc/shSmad2 (shSmad2), c-Myc/shSmad3 (shSmad3) and c-Myc/shSmad4 (shSmad4) mouse HCCs. Scale bars: 200 μm.