Fig. 1: Overactivation of Rac1 is correlated with radioresistance in hepatocellular carcinoma.

a Gene expression analysis from patients with HCC (n = 3). Three-dimensional conformal RT (3DCRT) was delivered to patients. The planned total dose was 18 Gy, with a fractional size of 3.0 Gy, using 6-MV x-rays with a linear accelerator (Elekta Synergy; Elekta, Stockholm, Sweden) at five fractions per week. b Analysis of the GEPIA database revealed that Rac1 is upregulated in liver tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. c Kaplan–Meier curves of HCC survivals based on the expression status of Rac1 gene according to TCGA and GEPIA dataset. d Representative images and IHC scores of Rac1-GTP expression in tumor tissues of radioresistant HCC patients (Non/poor responders) (n = 8) and radiosensitive HCC patients (Good responders) (n = 11). e, f Dose responses of survival factions of Huh7 and HepG2 cells treated with DMSO or NSC23766. g–k B-NDG male mice were subcutaneously injected with Huh7 cells, then NSC23766 injected by intraperitoneal injection (1.5 mg/kg body weight), a 160 KeV X-ray linear accelerator (Rad Source Technologies Inc., TX, USA) with dose rate of 1.214 Gy/min (total 8 Gy) was used for animal irradiation (n = 5 per group). Tumor volumes were calculated (g). Tumor weights were determined (h). Representative images were shown (i). Data represent the mean ± s.d. Statistical significance was determined by two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test (h) and two-way ANOVA (g). ^**P < 0.01; ^***P < 0.001; ^****P < 0.0001. H&E and IHC analyses of mouse tumor tissues were performed with the indicated antibodies (j, k). Representative images were shown (j). The expression levels of the indicated proteins were quantified in eight microscopic fields of the tumor samples (k). Scale bars, 50 μm.