Figure 1

Intrahepatic human HCC xenografts in immunodeficient mice. A) Representative image of a murine liver with discrete human HCC nodules that formed after intrasplenic injection of primary human HCC cells isolated from a surgical resection specimen; similar nodules were also generated after injection of HepG2 and Huh7 human HCC cell lines. B) Representative RT-PCR analysis of a xenograft demonstrates expression of several transcripts typical of human liver tissue (composite image; ALB - albumin, AFP - alphafetoprotein, AAT - alpha-1-antitrypsin, TAT - tyrosine aminotransferase, TDO - tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase, G6P - glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, CK8/18/19 - cytokeratin 8/18/19, GAPDH - glyceraldehyde phosphate dehdrogenase). C) Histopathology of a resected patient tumor demonstrates typical features of HCC including hepatocyte-like cells with nuclear atypia and high nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio, absence of portal tracts, and distorted trabeculae with increased thickness of hepatocellular plates (H & E stain, x200). D) Section of murine liver demonstrating normal murine liver tissue (top right) adjacent to intrahepatic human HCC xenograft that closely resembles the corresponding original parent tumor shown in panel C (H & E stain, x200). E) Histopathology of intrahepatic xenograft generated from Huh7 cells (H & E stain, x200). F) Histopathology of intrahepatic xenograft generated from HepG2 cells (H & E stain, x200).