To ascertain whether the regulatory relationship between CD147 and cathepsin B did exist in HCC tissues, we analyzed CD147 and cathepsin B expression in HCC tissues by IHC and found that the expression of cathepsin B was significantly correlated with the expression of CD147 (Spearman r = 0.395, p = 0.0005, Fig. 3j and S2, Table 1). This evidence concerns the gene CTSB and hepatocellular carcinoma.