CASP9 and hepatocellular carcinoma: MiR-148b consistently induced a significant reduction of Pro-caspase-3 and Pro-caspase-9 and increased the cleavage of caspase-3 and caspase-9, which suggests that miR-148b induces apoptosis of HCC cells through activating the caspase- 3 and caspase-9 (Fig. 3B).