Fig. 3

Expression profiling revealed PPARα signaling and SCD1 might contribute to CSC traits of HCC. a Hierarchical cluster analysis based on sphere and parental Huh7 cells. Red and green cells depict high and low expression levels, respectively. b Heat map of CSC-related and mature hepatocyte-related genes according to expression profile. Red and blue cells depict high and low expression levels, respectively. c qRT-PCR evaluation of CSC-related and mature hepatocyte-related genes. Red and blue columns depict high and low expression fold changes, respectively. d KEGG pathway analysis of expression profile. e Biological process analysis of expression profile. f qRT-PCR evaluation of key genes involved in PPARα pathway in Huh7 and Hep3B cell lines. g qRT-PCR evaluation of key genes involved in PPARα pathway in 5 primary tumor spheres. *: P < 0.05