MMP9 and neoplasm: Transcriptional and translational changes observed coherently in the two lines demonstrated that hrIL-23-induced tumor promoting effects were associated with an EMT gene expression profile: upregulation of invasivity marker matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) mRNA (Figure 3C) and downregulation of liver-specific and epithelial marker E-cadherin protein (Figure 3D) in HepG2 and Huh-7 cells.