Furthermore, Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of N‐cadherin, vimentin, MMP‐2 and MMP‐9 in cervical cancer cells, the results of which showed an up‐regulation in these proteins upon E2F4 silencing or C16orf74 overexpression in the presence of HAND2‐AS1 overexpression (Figure 4F; P < .05). This evidence concerns the gene MMP2 and cervical carcinoma.