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. The gene discussed is MMP2; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.