MMP2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Previous study have found that suppressed expression of AFP maybe inhibit the transduction of PI3K/AKT signal pathway in HCC cells [42], we found that AFP harbored the ability to activate the PI3K/AKT signalling pathway to promote CXCR4, Src, Ras, MMP2/9, and K19 expression and to stimulate the proliferation and metastasis of HCC cells [32, 33–36, 43].