Importantly, overexpression of GSK-3β could partially reverse the decreased activity of snail promoter reporter induced by miR-451 upregulation or c-Myc downregulation, while the ERK inhibitor could not only reverse the increased expression of p-GSK-3β, total or nuclear snail, E-cadherin and MMPs in HCC cells induced by miR-451 downregulation, but also reverse the increased activity of snail promoter induced by miR-451 downregulation and c-Myc overexpression. Here, SNAI1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.