Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 10 pp 14433—14455

Chronic alcohol exposure promotes HCC stemness and metastasis through β-catenin/miR-22-3p/TET2 axis

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Figure 1. Chronic alcohol exposure promotes HCC metastasis. (A) A representative image showing the migration of control, negative control (NC) and chronic alcohol-induced HCC cells. (B) The migrated cells were quantified and shown in column graph. *P< 0.05, **P< 0.01, n= 3. (C) A representative image showing the invasion of control, NC and chronic alcohol-induced HCC cells. (D) The invaded cells were quantified and shown in column graph. *P< 0.05, **P< 0.01, n= 3. (E) Typical anatomical images of orthotopic liver tumors and lung metastasis nodules from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. (F) The volume of orthotopic liver tumors from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. Each group consisted of four mice. **P< 0.01. (G) The weight of orthotopic liver tumors from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. Each group consisted of four mice. **P < 0.01. (H) The number of lung metastasis nodules from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice was quantified. Each group consisted of four mice. *P< 0.05. (I) HE images of lung metastasis nodules from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. (J) The bright-field and fluorescence-field images of GFP-labelled HCC-LM3 cells. (K) The number of CTCs in peripheral blood of the orthotopic tumor model mice. **P< 0.01, n= 4. (L) microRNA-sequencing results of liver tumor tissues from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. (M) The expression level of miR-22-3p in tumors from the control group and alcohol drinking nude mice. Each group consisted of four mice. *P< 0.05.