Fig. 2: GDF1 suppressed HCC cell proliferation but strongly induced tumour metastasis.

a PLC-8024 and Huh7 cells were stably transfected with full-length GDF1, and overexpression was confirmed at the protein level by western blot (n = 3 independent experiments). b A cell-viability assay was performed to evaluate the cell proliferation rate in PLC-8024-CTR cells and PLC-8024-GDF1 cells (two-way ANOVA test, data are presented as mean values ± SEM, n = 3 independent experiments). c A colony-formation assay was performed to evaluate the colony formation ability of PLC-8024-CTR cells and PLC-8024-GDF1 cells (two-tailed independent Student’s t test, data are presented as mean values ± SEM, n = 3 independent experiments). d, e Cell migration (d) and invasion (e) abilities were measured in PLC-8024 cells and Huh7 cells stably transfected with or without GDF1 (two-tailed independent Student’s t-test, data are presented as mean values ± SEM, d: n = 5 independent experiments, e: n = 4 independent experiments). f A total of PLC-8024-CTR cells and PLC-8024-GDF1 cells were intrasplenically injected into immune-deficient BALB/c nude mice. Metastatic liver and lung tumour nodules were calculated 6 weeks later (two-tailed independent Student’s t-test, data are presented as mean values ± SEM, PLC-8024-CTR: n = 7, PLC-8024-GDF1: n = 8). g H&E staining and IHC staining of GDF1 were performed in metastatic liver and lung tumour nodules (PLC-8024-CTR: n = 7, PLC-8024-GDF1: n = 8). Scale bars represent 200 µm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.