RNF38 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To further reveal the role of RNF38 in TGF-β signaling in HCC patients, we randomly selected 15 HCC tissues in which determine the expression of RNF38 and TGFBR1, an important molecule in the TGF-β pathway, at the protein and mRNA level (Fig. 7a and c), and the Pearson correlational analysis showed that no correlation between RNF38 and TGFBR1 expression at either the protein (R = 0.1006, p = 0.72; Fig. 7b) or mRNA level (R = -0.1754, p = 0.53; Fig. 7d).