NRF1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To investigate effects of Nrf1α-specific knockout on the morphology of human hepatoma cells, Nrf1α−/− HEA157 cells together with wild-type (Nrf1+/+) HepG2 cells were subjected to visualization of cell shapes by both general light microscopy (Fig. 5b) and scanning electron microscopy (Fig. 5c).