MMP2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In subcutaneous tumor in nude mice, IHC showed that the Vimentin, Snail, and MMP2 positive staining were significantly more frequent in tumors of Panx1-transfected HCC cells than that in control cells, while E-cadherin protein expression was reduced in the Panx1 overexpression group, indicating that overexpression of Panx1 was more helpful to the occurrence of EMT (Figure 2D).