Figure 7

Sorafenib exerts tumor growth inhibition in vivo. (a) BALB/c severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice were inoculated subcutaneously with Huh7 cells. The mice were treated with 100 mg/kg body weight sorafenib or vehicle orally for 7 days. At the end point of the experiment, mice were euthanized and tumors were excised. Pictures of excised tumors from xenograft mice, showing larger tumors from untreated (control) mice than those from sorafenib-treated mice. (b) Mass of tumors in nude mice from the control group and from the group treated with sorafenib were compared. Statistical analysis was performed to show inhibitory effects of sorafenib on the mass of implanted tumors in nude mice (^*P<0.05). (c) Xenograft HCC tumors from untreated groups and sorafenib-treated groups were collected and lysates were prepared. Western blotting was performed to detect mitochondria fusion-related proteins optic atrophy 1 (OPA1), mitofusin 1 (Mfn1), and mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) with specific antibodies, respectively. β-Actin protein levels were assessed as an equal protein loading control. The four pairs of tissues tested were randomly selected sample pairs from untreated or sorafenib-treated tumor mice.