Compared with HCC tumor tissue, several EC proliferation and angiogenesis-related genes in peritumoral tissue were gradually up-regulated during seven weeks of tumor growth, including IL-6, IL-6R, and gp130, which was confirmed by RT-PCR (using mouse-specific primers), IHC staining (Fig. 1a, c) and Western blot (Fig. 1f). Here, IL6R is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.