Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts from Hepatocellular Carcinoma Promote Malignant Cell Proliferation by HGF Secretion
Figure 2
H-CAFs promoted the proliferation of HCC cells both in vivo and vitro.
(A and B) 97L cells (A) and Hep3B cells (B) were cultured in conditioned medium from different fibroblasts, and the proliferation of malignant cells was assayed by CCK-8 analysis. NLFs, PTFs and H-CAFs significantly increased HCC cell proliferation relative to NSFs and the control group. (C and D) A BALB/c nude mouse xenograft model based on the co-injection of HCC cells with or without two fibroblast types (NSFs or H-CAFs) was used to investigate the in vivo interaction between H-CAFs and HCC cells. Tumor volumes of tumor nodes generated by the co-injection of HCC cells and H-CAFs were consistently significantly larger than those formed by HCC cells without co-injection of H-CAFs. NSFs did not significantly increase tumor growth relative to the control. In addition, fibroblasts did not generate tumors when injected alone. (C) Gross tumor specimens at the end of the experiment are shown. Larger HCC tumors are formed when HCC cells are co-injected with H-CAFs (n = 5 per group) (D). (* P<0.05; ** P<0.01).