By contrast, in mice transplanted with a highly metastatic HCC cell line and IL-22+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from HCC patients, increased expression of pSTAT3 in tumor tissues has been detected along with an upregulation of cyclin D1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, indicating the role of IL-22-mediated STAT3 activation in HCC tumor growth and resistance to apoptosis [57]. Here, STAT3 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.