SERPINB5 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Maspin downregulation was mainly observed in HBV-associated but not in HCV- or non-HBV/non-HCV-associated HCC patients (Figure 1A), and transfection of HBV genome but not its HBx-deletion mutant suppressed maspin expression (Figure 1E), implying the involvement maspin suppression specifically in HBx-mediated HCC tumorigenesis.