AFP and hepatocellular carcinoma: In our current study, we found that the expression of AFP was triggered in normal human liver cells transfected with an HBx expression vector and that, in AFP-producing HCC cells, transfection with the AFP-siRNA vector repressed AFP expression and decreased the levels of pAKT(Ser473), p-mTOR(Ser2448), Src, CXCR4, and Ras.