Fig. 1

Expression level of PAR1 when activated by thrombin is correlated with endothelial-like transition in HCC cells. a Western blot assay of PAR1, endothelial, and EMT markers in different HCC cell lines and HUVEC. The endothelial cell line HUVEC has high expression of PAR1, endothelial, and EMT markers. Similar with HUVEC, SMMC-7721 and HepG2/M cells highly expressing PAR1 have higher expression levels of endothelial and mesenchymal markers than PLC-PRF-5 and HepG2 cells, which have low PAR1 expression. b Ca flux assays used to evaluate PAR1 activation upon thrombin binding in different HCC cell lines. (RFU: relative fluorescent unit; the higher RFU reflect, the higher the Ca ion concentration) (c) In vitro assay of VM tube formation in 3D gel at 20 h with or without 1 U/ml thrombin. HepG2/M and SMMC-7721 cells can form more VM tubes than PLC-PRF-5 and HepG2 cells. After thrombin stimulation, HepG2/M and 7721 cells produced twofold more VM structures than cells without thrombin (mean ± sd; n = 3 in triplicate; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01)