SHMT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: This study investigated the expression and biological functions of SHMT1 in HCC by analyzing the data from the publicly available databases, measuring SHMT1 level by qRT-PCR and IHC staining in the clinical specimens from our HCC patients’ cohort, and performing in vitro and in vivo experiments examining cellular metastatic ability, EMT and MMP2 expression.