ATG5 and cancer: Several evidence indicates that TGFβ activates autophagy in both normal and cancer cells.49, 50, 51, 52, 53 Kiyono et al.49 showed that TGFβ treatment of HuH7 hepatocellular carcinoma cell line resulted in an early and strong activation of autophagy marked by the increased expression of pro-autophagic genes (BCN1, ATG5 and ATG7), the conversion of LC3 and the accumulation of autophagosomes.