Fig. 6
Over-expression of PAR1 promoted HCC growth and metastasis in the xenograft model. a Tumor growth in nude mice after implanting PLC-PRF-5 cells transfected with pcDNA3.1-PAR1 or pcDNA3.1-PAR1/pRNAT-U6-siTwist1 and HepG2/M cells transfected with pRNAT-U6-siTwist1 (n = 5 for each group). PLC-PAR1 transplanted tumors showed higher rate of tumor growth compared with the control group while PLC-PAR1/siTwist1 xenografts exhibited slower growth rate than PLC-PAR1 transplanted tumors. HepG2/M-siTwist1 xenografts grew slower than the HepG2/M transplanted tumors. b Overexpression of PAR1 promoted lung metastasis in PLC-PRF-5 xenograft model, and knocked down of Twist1 decreased the lung metastasis compared with PLC-PRF-5 and HepG2/M xenograft groups overexpressing PAR1. c Effects of PAR1 on VM formation in xenograft tissues. d Effects of PAR1 on MVD in xenograft tissues. e IHC results showed the effects of PAR1 on the expression of PAR1, Twist1, VEGFR1, VEGFR2, E-cadherin, or vimentin, MMP-2 and MMP-9. (mean ± sd; **P < 0.01)