SOX9 and hepatocellular carcinoma: By Western blotting in a panel of HCC cell lines, Sox9 was abundantly expressed in BEL-7402, PLC/PRF/5, Huh7, Hep3B, MHCC-97L and MHCC-97H cell lines, while the immortalized normal liver cell line LO2 showed no Sox9 expression (Figure 1E).