SLC12A2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: We also found that the activity of MMP-2 was significantly increased after NKCC1 overexpression (Figure 3C), or significantly reduced after NKCC1 knockdown (Figure 3F) or bumetanide treatment (Figure 3I, Supplementary Figure 6C), which explained another downstream mechanism of NKCC1 in HCC metastasis.