Fig 2: Proteins concentration. The concentration of total (A), mTOR (B), and β-catenin (C) proteins in liver hepatocytes of mice selected for low and high basal metabolic rate (BMR), chemically enforced to develop hepatocellular carcinoma (DEN) in comparison to control groups (CONT) at 15th, 35th, and 45th week of genotoxic exposure. *—significance level for between lines comparison (HBMR vs. LBMR) revealed by ANOVA; **—significance level for between-groups comparison among each metabolic line (CONT vs. DEN) revealed by t-test; Figure box charts labelled with different letters indicate significant differences between chosen time points in each treatment group at p ≤ 0.05 as revealed by post-hoc NIR Fisher test

Fig 3: Expression of IGF-1, PI3K, and mTOR genes. Liver expression of representative genes for metabolism and cell size control in mice characterized by high (blue bars) and low (orange bars) basal metabolic rate (BMR) at different time points of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor 1), PI3K (Phosphate Inozyto-3 Kinase), and mTOR (mammalian Target of Rapamycin). The results are presented as log2 fold change normalized to an endogenous reference (β-actin gene) and relative to the untreated control individuals after the Livak and Schmittgen (2001) method. * -indicates p < 0.05 differences in cancer vs control group; NS -no differences; “p” values above the bars indicate significance level between metabolic lines at each time point with bold marks representing p ≤ 0.05 values