ESR2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Wei et al. (2015) have reported that HCC cell lines (SMMC7721, BEL7402, and HepG2 cells) treated with E2 -activated NLRP3 inflammasome through E2/ERβ/MAPK signaling, eventually ameliorated HCC progression. Furthermore, the NLRP3 inflammasome activated by E2 treatment -induced caspase-1-dependent pyroptosis in HepG2 cells, led to the suppression of HCC progression (Wei et al., 2019).