AXIN2 and gastric cancer: Moreover, stable over-expression or knockdown of ITLN1 in gastric cancer cells decreased and increased the β-catenin activity and transcription of downstream genes axin 2 (AXIN2) [21], cyclin D2 (CCND2) [22], runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) [23], and matrix metallopeptidase 3 (MMP3) [24], respectively, which was abolished by knockdown or ectopic expression of HNF4α (Figure 1H, Figure S2E, Figure S2F, and Figure S3B).