HOXA13 and liver cancer: Thus, HOTTIP regulates expression of several HOX genes in pancreatic cancer cells but in contrast to liver cancer cells, HOTTIP does not regulate expression of HOXA13. A recent study showed that HOXA10 expression in pancreatic cancer cells was associated with regulation of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP-3) [24] and in Panc1 cells transfected with siHOTTIP, we also observed decreased expression of HOXA10 and MMP-3 (Figure 6C and 6D).