Fig. 3

HOXD-AS1 promotes invasion and metastasis of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. a, b Migration and invasion analyses of SMCC-7721 and Huh7 cells with shRNA knockdown of HOXD-AS1. Representative images are shown on the left, and the average number of cells per field at the indicated time points is shown on the right. c, d Migration and invasion assays of Huh28 and SNU449 cells were performed after transduction with HOXD-AS1 or control lentivirus, respectively. e Gross morphology of representative lungs and characteristic H&E staining of metastatic nodules in the lung of nude mice 6 weeks after tail vein injection with tumor cells. The numbers of metastatic nodules in the lungs of each mouse (n = 12 mice per group) were counted and analyzed using. Data in A-E are the means ± SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001