Fig. 3

DEPTOR promoted the invasion and metastasis of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. a Knockdown of DEPTOR expression reduced the migration and invasion of HLF cells in the transwell assay. b DEPTOR overexpression enhanced migration and invasion of HepG2 and 7402 cells in the transwell assay. Representative images of lung metastases derived from HLF-shDEP1/2 and the control cells (c) or HepG2-DEP and the corresponding control cells (d) are shown in the left panels, the proportion of metastatic nodules in the lungs was calculated as shown in the middle panels. The rate of lung metastasis is shown in the right panels. The data represent the means ± SEM from three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001