Fig. 2

HOXB7 facilitated hepatoma cell proliferation by promoting stemness. a Protein level of HOXB7 in different hepatoma cell lines. b Efficiency of knockdown and overexpression HOXB7 in SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells, respectively. c Location of HOXB7 in SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. d Cell Titer-Blue assay was used to examine the effect of HOXB7 on the proliferation of SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. HOXB7 promoted the proliferation of hepatoma cells (P < 0.05, respectively). e Analysis of clone formation in SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. HOXB7 promoted clone formation of hepatoma cells (P < 0.05, respectively). f Analysis of sphere formation in SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. HOXB7 accelerated sphere formation of hepatoma cells (P < 0.05, respectively). g, h Hepatoma stem cell markers EPCAM and NANOG expression level after HOXB7 knockdown and overexpression