HGF and hepatocellular carcinoma: We further investigated whether Hic-5 can be induced in the low Hic-5 expressing HCCs such as HCC340, H363 and HCC374 by metastatic factors such as HGF and the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), known to be a potent inducer of HCC migration [19, 21, 22].