ASGR1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: A hepatoma cell line (Hep-G2) that expresses a transmembrane galactose receptor (the asialoglycoprotein receptor – ASGPr) and control cell lines (human cervical cancer – HeLa and human lung cancer – A549) with minimal ASGPr expression were used.27 The ASGPr expression level was examined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) (Fig. 4a).