Fig. 2

Tumor-derived exosomes activated HSCs in vitro. a Immunofluorescence imaging showed the delivery of 97H-labeled exosomes (green) to α-SMA-labeled HSCs (red). Yellow arrows represented delivered exosomes. b and c HSCs were activated by HCC cell-derived exosomes in a concentration-dependent manner. CCK8 assay (d), Edu (e and f) and flow cytometry assays (g) of HSCs treated with equal quantities of exosomes derived from different liver cancer cells or blank control. Experiments were performed at least in triplicate, and results are shown as mean ± s.d. Student’s t-test was used to analyze the data (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001)