AKT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: As we expected, attenuated PI3K/AKT signal that was resulted from AEG-1 depletion resulted in inhibition of HIF-1α/MDR-1 pathway, thus it is suggested that AEG-1 positively modulated MDR-1 expression in hypoxic HCC via the stimulation of PI3K/ AKT/HIF-1α signaling pathway.