In both the in vitro and in vivo experiments, immunoblotting showed that ANGPT2 overexpression in HCC led to a dramatic increase in the ZEB1, N-cadherin, vimentin, Twist1 and Snail levels and a decrease in the E-cadherin level, suggesting that EMT increased in HCC (Additional file 12: Figure S9A, C). Here, SNAI1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.