Fig. 1

TGFβ1 induces nuclear deformation. A Confocal images of Huh7 cells with mock or with TGFβ1 treatment for 12 h, 24 h and 48 h. Cells were immunofluorescent stained with goat anti-lamin B (white). Nuclei were counterstained with Hoechst 33342 (blue). B Western blot analysis for the expression of mesenchymal markers N-Cadherin and Vimentin in Huh7 cells harvested after 0, 24 h, and 48 h of TGFβ1 treatment. ACTIN is a loading control. C Quantification of mock- and TGFβ1-treated cells, presenting as ovoid or non-ovoid, as shown in (A). Nuclei with more than two > 240° invaginations were identified as non-ovoid [40]. Number of cells quantified under each experiment condition was denoted. D Time-lapse confocal microscopic images of mCherry-tagged histone H2B (mCherry-H2B) in mock- and TGFβ1-treated Huh7 cells. In addition, see Additional file 2: Movie S1 and Additional file 3: Movie S2 (started to record after 24 h of TGFβ1 treatment). E, F Quantification of morphological changes (area in green divided by area in yellow + green) in the area of the nucleus in mock- and TGFβ1-treated cells every 30 min. Five cells were quantified under each condition. Percent area change is 15.72 ± 0.78 in mock-treated and 24.66 ± 1.278 in TGFβ1-treated cells. P < 0.0001, t test. G Confocal images of nuclei stained with Hoechst 33342 (white, left images in each panel) and representative illustration of ellipse generation (right schemes in each panel, outlined by circles) by EFA to approximate the shape of the nucleus. The elliptic ARs increased with the curvature of the nucleus. H Quantification of ARs in Huh7 cells with mock or TGFβ1 treatment for 48 h. Each dot represents one cell. More than 160 cells were quantified under each condition. P < 0.0001, t test