Interestingly, in line with the role of alkalinization in inducing lactate production in tumor cells, addition of NaHCO3 to CNE2 cells led to the increased expression of chymase compared with the expression in the control and HCl-treated group, both in normoxic and hypoxic conditions (Fig. 6b and Supplementary Figure S5b). This evidence concerns the gene CMA1 and neoplasm.