Fig. 2

ATAD3A plays a vital role in sorafenib resistance and hyperactivates mitophagy in hepatoma cells. a Electron micrographs showing mitophagy in ATAD3A-knockdown LM3 cells. b Immunoblot showing expression levels of indicated proteins in untreated and chloroquine (CLQ)-treated Huh7 and Huh7-shATAD3A cells. c Immunoblot showing expression levels of indicated proteins in Huh7-shControl, Huh7-shATAD3A, LM3-shControl and LM3-shATAD3A cells. d, e GSEA of drug resistance genes in shControl and shATAD3A cells. NES, normalized enrichment score. f Heatmap showing expression for drug resistance core-enriched genes in LM3-shATAD3A cells relative to that in LM3-shControl cells. g, h qRT-PCR analyses of the indicated genes in shATAD3A and shControl LM3 cells. i Percentage of apoptotic cells in ATAD3A-knockdown cells. Annexin V and PI respectively indicate the early and late stage apoptotic cells. j, k Percentage of viable shControl and shATAD3A Huh7 (j) and LM3 (k) cells under sorafenib treatment for varying durations. l Immunoblot showing the expression levels of the indicated proteins in Huh7-shControl, Huh7-shATAD3A, LM3-shControl and LM3-shATAD3A cells. m Mito-Tracker fluorescence intensities in the indicated Huh7 cells and LM3 cells. Data are shown as mean ± SEM from three independent experiments, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001