CASP9 and neoplasm: As shown in Figure 5F, at 25 days after subcutaneous injection of nude mice with HepG2 cells that were transfected with TM4SF1-expressing plasmids, tumor expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, and VEGF were significantly higher, but tumor expression of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were significantly lower, relative to injection with control cells (p < 0.01 for all comparisons) based on immunohistochemical analysis and/or Western blot analysis.