Fig. 3

TKT Promotes HCC Cell Growth, Proliferation and Distant Metastasis in vivo. a Knocking down TKT inhibited the subcutaneous growth of HCCLM3 cells in nude mice. b The growth curves of subcutaneous tumors in nude mice treated by negative control and TKT knockdown HCCLM3 cells. c Implanted tumor burden in mouse livers (6 weeks after orthotopic xenograft transplantation of subcutaneous tumors into mouse livers). d Upper: the number of lung metastatic foci in each group was calculated. Classification of metastatic foci was based on the cell number in the metastatic lesion. Lower: representative lung tissue sections from each group were shown (hematoxylin & eosin stain, scale bar, 100 μm). Red arrows indicate lung metastatic tumors (*: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01)