MTOR and hepatocellular carcinoma: However, it seems that hypoadiponectinemia may trigger dedifferentiation of HCC because of followings: Saxena et al. showed that adiponectin increased the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the TSC2 tumor suppressor, and inhibited phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in vitro assay using Huh7 and HepG2 HCC cells [11].