Fig. 2

miR-589-5p participates in the regulation of stemness in HCC CSCs. (a) Expression of miR-589-5p increased in CD90⁺ MHCC97H and MHCC97L cells after transfection with miR-589-5p mimics. (b) Expression of the pluripotency-associated genes Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog in CD90⁺ MHCC97H and MHCC97L cells was measured by qRT-PCR (upper two panels) and Western blot (lower panel) after transfection of miR-control or miR-589-5p mimics. (c) Sphere formation and clone formation by CD90⁺ MHCC97H and MHCC97L cells transfected with miR-control or miR-589-5p mimics. (d) Migration and invasion of CD90⁺ MHCC97H and MHCC97L cells transfected with miR-control or miR-589-5p mimics. (e) Tumor formation by CD90⁺ MHCC97H and MHCC97L cells in nude mice. After the tumor cells were injected, the miR-589-5p agomirs or control RNAs were injected subcutaneously every three days within the next two weeks. All data are representative of three independent experiments and are shown as mean ± SEM (n = 3)