CCN2 and cancer: Quite interestingly, genes and associated interaction partners that were downregulated upon Hic-5 KD comprised members and/or associated partners of the TGFβ pathway (including TGF-β2, TGFβR, TGFβRII, FGF2, CTGF, FGFR, SRC, RUNX2 and CDH2), that are commonly implicated in inducing EMT in cancer (Figure 9).