Fig. 4: TREM2 influenced tumor behaviors by inhibiting PI3K/Akt/β-catenin signal pathway in vitro and β-catenin interference could rescue the suppressive effect of TREM2 on tumor behavior, such as HCC cell growth, migration, and invasion.

a Protein level of phosphorylated Akt, phosphorylated GSK3β, and nuclear β-catenin in the control with two TREM2 knockdown cell lines from MHCC97L and in the control (Ctrl) with TREM2 overexpressing MHCC97H cells. b Quantification of the western blotting data from three separate experiments was shown. *KD2 vs. the control, **P < 0.01, ^#KD4 vs. the control, ^##P < 0.01, and ^&TREM2 vs. the Ctrl, ^&&P < 0.01. c β-catenin interference significantly rescued TREM2 knockdown-promoted cell growth as showed by CCK-8 assay. d β-catenin interference significantly rescued TREM2 knockdown-promoted cell motility as showed by scratch assay. Left panel: typical pictures of four groups in scratch assay. Right panel: quantification of the result of scratch assay. e β-catenin interference significantly rescued TREM2 knockdown-promoted migration and invasion of HCC cells as showed by transwell assay. Left panel: Typical pictures of four groups in transwell assay. Right panel: Quantification of the result of transwell assay. Data were from a representative experiment carried out in triplicate. For (c–e), *TREM2 knockdown vs. the control, **P < 0.01 and ^#TREM2 knockdown and β-catenin interference vs. TREM2 knockdown, ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01