Fig. 6

miR-22 and galectin-9 attenuated HCC cell growth and metastasis and angiogenesis in vivo. a Growth curves of HepG2 cells (1 × 106) stably transfected with mock vectors or miR-22-3p precursors and HepG2 cells co-transfected with galectin-9 in athymic nude mice (n = 5 for each group) at 4 weeks after hypodermic injection. b Representative images of and results for the xenograft tumors in the groups mentioned above (scale bar, 1 cm). c Immunohistochemical staining for CD31 and Ki-67 expression within tumors formed by hypodermic injections of HepG2 cells stably transfected with mock vectors or miR-22-3p precursors and HepG2 cells co-transfected with galectin-9 (magnification ×400; scale bar, 100 um). d Representative images of the whole lung (upper, arrowhead; scale bar, 0.5 cm) and HE-stained sections (lower, magnification × 100; scale bar, 100 um). Results (lower panel) of the lung metastasis analysis, which was performed after the mice were injected with HepG2 cells stably transfected with mock vectors or miR-22-3p precursors and HepG2 cells co-transfected with galectin-9 (* P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, compared to mock)