Figure 4.

Increasing mitochondrial fragmentation promotes cell proliferation in HB

(A) Representative confocal microscopy images of mitochondria in Huh6 cells with treatment as indicated. Scale bars: 10 μm. shctrl, control shRNA; shDRP1-1 and shDRP1-2, shRNA against DRP1; EV, empty vector; MFN1, expression vector encoding MFN1. (B) Morphology distribution of mitochondria was analyzed. (C and D) EdU assay was performed to evaluate proliferation ability of Huh6 cells with treatment as indicated. Scale bar: 50 μm. (E and F) High-magnification images and size of spheres formed on day 7 by Huh6 cells with treatment as indicated. Scale bar: 50 μm. (G) Tumor volume curves of subcutaneous xenograft tumor models developed from Huh6 cells with treatment as indicated. Tumor volume was measured using vernier calipers every 5 days from day 10 after subcutaneous implantation. (H) Images of tumors from sacrificed mice were obtained on day 30 after implantation. Tumor weights of different groups were compared. (I) Representative images of PCNA staining and the percentage of PCNA-positive cells in subcutaneous xenograft tumors. Scale bar: 50 μm. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01.