Fig. 4.

MerTK promotes HCC cell growth in vivo. (A) Representative dissected tumors derived from control and MerTK knockdown MHCC97H, HCCLM3, Huh7 and HepG2 cells are shown. (B) Growth of tumors derived from control and MerTK knockdown cells are shown. n = 8 (MHCC97H and HCCLM3 cells) or 5 (Huh7 and HepG2 cells). Data are presented as mean ± SEM, statistical significance was determined by Student's t-test, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. (C) Tumor weights at the end of the experiment are measured. Data are presented as mean ± SEM, statistical significance was determined by Student's t-test, ***P < 0.001. (D) MerTK expression in the lysates of tumor tissue (A) are shown. (E) Immunoblots of tumor growth related proteins p-GSK3β, p-Akt and glycolysis related enzymes PGK1, LDHA, PFKM, PKM2, PDHK1 in tumor tissues derive from nude mice. β-Actin is used as a loading control. (F) Representative dissected tumors derived from control and MerTK overexpression MHCC97H cells are shown. (G and H) Tumors growth were measured once in two days (G) and tumor weights are measured at the end of the experiment (H). n = 8. Data are presented as mean ± SEM, statistical significance was assessed by Student's t-test, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. (I) MerTK expression in the lysates of tumor tissue (F) are shown.