MCL1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: As expected, HBx mRNA expression was found to be inversely correlated with Mcl-1 protein expression in 30 HCC samples (r = 0.40, p = 0.028) However, no correlation was observed between HBx and Bcl-xL expression (r = 0.20, p = 0.285) (Figure 6D).