To confirm the high expression of HIF-1α and TGF-β in vivo, we analyzed data of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) HCC cohorts and found that TGFB1 and HIF1A expression were significantly overexpressed in 371 tumor specimens compared with 50 non-tumor tissues (Fig. 2a, b). This evidence concerns the gene HIF1A and hepatocellular carcinoma.