Recent studies have also indicated that Tbx3 may induce melanoma cell invasion via binding the E-cadherin promoter to repress its transcription.43 Our results revealed that the repression motifs are required for the regulation of E-cadherin expression by Tbx3 in HCC cells (Fig. 4), which indicates that Tbx3 is a novel modulator of EMT in HCC progression and that it functions through the regulation of E-cadherin expression. Here, TBX3 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.