Figure 5

Systemic Chol-let-7a therapy inhibited growth and metastasis of orthotopic HepG2 xenografts. A: Xenograft growth curve. Representative xenografts from all groups are illustrated (N =6 mice per cohort). The Chol-let-7a (green), Chol-miRCtrl (red), and blank control (blue) groups are shown. B: Macroscopic view of the HCC orthotopic tumour and metastasis within the liver of the treatment groups. C: Orthotopic HepG2 xenografts examined by ultrasonography. Xenograft images were recorded 1, 3, and 5 weeks after HepG2 cells were transplanted. D: TEM of HCC orthotopic tumours in vivo. Necrotic and tumour cells in HCC tissues are shown. Short red arrows indicate the microvasculature in orthotopic tumours. Scale bars are 2 μm or 0.5 μm. E: H&E staining of orthotopic HCC tumour tissues. H&E staining was performed at the culmination of Chol-let-7a therapy. Differentiation and mitoses (short yellow arrows) of HCC cells of the 3 treatment groups are shown; all were recorded beside necrotic areas. Scale bars are 20 μm.