WNK2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: As expected, we found that increased 14-3-3β expression in HCC cells induced marked phosphorylation of Akt, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK, also known as p38), extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and Jun-N-terminal kinase 1/2 (JNK 1/2) (Fig 4B).