Fig. 4

Metabolomic profile of the HCC cell lines. a Schematic representation of metabolic enzymes differentially expressed in intermediary pathways. In red and ↑ are those higher in HLE cells, while ↓ are lower compared to HUH7 cells. 3-PG – 3-phosphoglycerate; Pyr – pyruvate; OAA – oxaloacetate; αKG – alpha ketoglutarate; Asp – aspartate; Ala – alanine, Glu – glutamate; Gln – glutamine. b qPCR data showing relative mRNA level of notable metabolic genes in intermediary metabolism. Arrows indicate the direction of their consistent expression in human HCC microarray datasets as previously reported [13]. c Intracellular metabolites in HUH7 and HLE cells as measured after 24 h, in triplicates. Cit – citrate, Succ – succinate, Fum – fumarate, Mal – malate, Cys – cysteine, Ser – serine, Gly – glycine, Lact – lactate; a.u - arbitrary unit. d Isotope tracing data showing glucose/glutamine-derived carbon contribution to metabolites in glycolysis and serine pathway, after 24 h. e Isotope tracing data showing glucose/glutamine carbon contribution to TCA cycle and transamination metabolites after 24 h. Bars represent mean ± SD of triplicate analysis