Before investigating the functional effects of hGH in HCC cells, we first determined the expression of human growth hormone receptor (hGHR) and human prolactin receptor (hPRLR) expression by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in several HCC cell lines, including a normal hepatic cell line LO2 and a hepatoma cell line HepG2. The gene discussed is GHR; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.