Fig. 3

Tetrandrine-inhibited HCC cell migration is associated with autophagy. a Huh7 cells were transiently transfected with the GFP-LC3 plasmid for 12 h and subsequently treated with DMSO or 2- μM tetrandrine for 24 h. Immunofluorescence analysis of the cellular localization patterns of the GFP-LC3 fusion protein. Scale bars: 20 μm. The percentage of cells with GFP-LC3 puncta was quantified. Data are represented as the mean ± SD. *p < 0.05. b Huh7 cells were pretreated with 3-MA (3 mM) for 1 h and then treated with DMSO or 2-μM tetrandrine for 24 h. Western blot analysis of LC3 levels. GAPDH was loaded as a control. Transwell migration assays were performed on Huh7 cells in the presence of 2-μM tetrandrine (Tet) and/ or 3-MA for 24 h. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. of at least three independent experiments, *p < 0.05. c A would healing and (d) a transwell migration assay was conducted for WT and ATG7-deficient Huh7 and HCCLM9 cells treated with DMSO or 2-μM tetrandrine (Tet) for 24 h. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. of at least three independent experiments, #p > 0.01, *p < 0.05