Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 13 pp 13023—13037

Figure 5. The inhibition of mTORC1 activity by rapamycin restores autophagy function but compromises the cellular invasion and lung metastatic abilities of Gαh-overexpressing HCC1806 cells. (A) Results from the Western blot analysis of the LC3-I/II, p62 and GAPDH proteins derived from HCC1806 cells without (VC) or overexpression Gαh (OE) in the absence or presence of the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin (RAPA) (30 or 100 μM). GAPDH was used as an internal control of protein loading. The protein intensities of representative blots from three independent experiments were normalized by GAPDH levels and presented as a ratio to the control group. (B–C) Giemsa staining (B) and cell number (C) for the invaded HCC1806 cell variants shown in A. Data obtained from three independent experiments are presented as the mean ± SEM. Letters indicate the significant differences at p<0.01 analyzed by nonparametric Friedman test. (D and E) H&E staining of lung tissues (D) and the number of lung tumor colonies (E) derived from mice (n=5) transplanted with the HCC1806 cell variants, shown in A, through tail vein injection for 4 weeks. Tumors are shown in red circles. Statistical significance was analyzed by nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test.