These results suggest that both epithelial and mesenchymal HCC cell lines are able to maintain intracellular concentrations of glutamine and leucine comparable to controls in the face of ASCT2 and LAT1 knockout, and that profound reductions in initial rate uptake by these exchangers do not translate to significantly depressed intracellular amino acid availability in vitro. This evidence concerns the gene LAT and hepatocellular carcinoma.