Studies by Li et al. and others have indicated that autophagy is necessary for phenotype plasticity of hepatocytes and is responsible for hepatic carcinoma cell metastasis through activation of EMT, which includes the activation of TGF-β1 signaling [22, 39] This discussion highlights the importance of autophagy in regulation of cellular phenotypes and its function in diseases development. The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.