HMGA2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis showed that the overexpression of HMGA2-sh could upregulate the expression of HMGA2 at the levels of mRNA and protein in a dose-dependent manner in hepatoma Huh7 (or HepG2) cells (Fig. 1F and Supplementary Fig. S1C), suggesting that HMGA2-sh as an element has regulatory functions.