RBL2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Due to the apparent involvement of the RB1 gene and its product, pRb, in HCC onset and/or progression [19, 20], as well as the interplay with HCV infection and HCV core expression [21, 22], we sought to analyze the effect of the sole HCV core protein expression on all the Retinoblastoma (RB) family of tumor and growth suppressor factors, i.e. pRb, p107 and pRb2/p130, the protein products of the RB1, RBL1 and RBL2 genes, respectively [23–26].