BAX and hepatocellular carcinoma: Concordantly, levels of pro-apoptotic genes (cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-6, and Bax) increased, whereas the level of anti-apoptotic gene (Bcl-2) decreased responding to LL22NC03-N14H11.1 silence in HCC cells, with total caspase-3 and caspase-6 unchanged (Fig. 2e), further suggesting that LL22NC03-N14H11.1 depletion increased apoptosis in HCC cells.