Liver-Specific Inactivation of the Proprotein Convertase FURIN Leads to Increased Hepatocellular Carcinoma Growth

Figure 1

Expression levels of the constitutively secreted proprotein convertases in the livers and liver tumors. (a) The expression levels of Furin in Furin wild type mice did not change significantly in the liver tumors compared to those in normal livers at every time point investigated. (b) Expression of PC7 was significantly reduced in the liver tumors of 5-week-old mice, but not at later time points. (c) The expression of PC5/6 was significantly reduced in the liver tumors of 5-week-old and 13-week-old mice. (d) The expression levels of PACE4 were significantly reduced in the tumors at all time points investigated. (a) Furin expression was nearly completely ablated in the livers of the Furin KO mice with and without the tumors as shown by qRT-PCR at the different time points investigated. (b, c, d) Furin inactivation in the liver and liver tumors did not significantly alter the expression levels of other PCs. Two-way ANOVA was used to determine statistical significance. Data are shown as fold induction ± SEM relative to ASVB^−/− Alb-Cre^−/−   mice (–11).

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