An interesting finding of the present study was the absence of RNA expression of HGFAC, considered the most powerful activator of pro-HGF in HGF [23], indicating that in insulinomas, matriptase (and maybe other proteins not evaluated in this study, such as hepsin [24] ) is responsible for pro-HGF proteolysis. The gene discussed is HGF; the disease is pancreatic insulinoma.