Fig. 2

GSTZ1 inhibits cell proliferation in HCC cell lines. a Western blotting showing endogenous GSTZ1 protein expression in HCC cell lines. b GSTZ1 overexpression in Huh7 and MHCC-97H cells, and knockout (KO) of GSTZ1 in HepG2 cells were confirmed through immunoblotting. The overexpression model was established by infecting hepatoma cells with adenoviruses expressing GSTZ1 (AdGSTZ1), and adenoviruses expressing GFP (AdGFP) was used as a control. The knockout model was established with the CRISPR-Cas9 system. c-e The proliferation potential of GSTZ1-overexpressing Huh7, MHCC-97H cells, and GSTZ1-KO HepG2 cells. c Representative images and enumeration of EdU-positive cells. d Cell growth curve. e Representative images and determination of the colony formation capacity. For Western blotting, 50 μg protein was loaded per well. Values represent the mean ± SD (n = 3, performed in triplicate), *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, Student’s t-test (two groups) or one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey tests (three groups). HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma