Fig. 4

BMP4 accelerated HCC cells growth by autophagy induction in vivo: a upper: Tumor formation of LV-BMP4 and LV-NC treated with 3-MA in HepG2 cells; lower: Tumor formation of si-BMP4 and si-NC treated with Rapa in HCCLM3 cells. b The average tumor weight of BMP4 overexpression in HepG2 cells was significantly more than the control group, while knockdown of BMP4 in HCCLM3 cells decreased the tumor weight. Autophagy inhibition by 3-MA attenuated the growth-promotion effect of BMP4 overexpression while autophagy induction restored the growth-suppression effect of BMP4 knockdown. n = 5, one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test. c The average tumor volume of subcutaneous implantation models of ectopic BMP4 expression and autophagy manipulation in HCC cells. n = 5, one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test. d HE staining and immunohistochemistry staining for the expression of BMP4, LC3B and proliferation-related protein Ki-67 in subcutaneous tumor (Original magnification: × 200)