HOXA5 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Other experiments have shown that uPA promotes the stemness of pancreatic cancer cells through a mechanism involving the direct interaction of uPA with the transcription factors HOXA5 and Hey: particularly, uPA regulates Lhx-2 expression by suppressing expression of miR-124 and p53 expression by repressing its promoter by inactivating HOXA5 [162].