SLC31A1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Immunohistochemical analysis of HCC samples further verified the molecular mechanism underlying β-elemene’s ability to prevent oxaliplatin-induced degradation of hCTR1: the expression of hCTR1 in the oxaliplatin treatment group decreased significantly, but in the combined β-elemene treatment group the expression of hCTR1 reversed to the level of PBS treatment (Fig. 4c).