Furthermore, we pre‐treated HCC cells with a pan‐caspase inhibitor z‐VAD‐FMK (50 μmol/L), specific caspase‐3 inhibitor z‐DEVD‐FMK (100 μmol/L) and specific caspase 9 inhibitor z‐LEHD‐FMK (50 μmol/L) for 4 hours, followed by treatment with HF (40 μmol/L) for 24 hours to determine whether HF induced caspase‐dependent apoptosis. The gene discussed is CASP9; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.