In agreement, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been shown to inhibit the TGF-β/SMAD pathway to repress hypoxia-inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF-1α) and VEGF protein expression in the ECM to restrict liver fibrosis and early HCC tumourigenesis [55]. Here, HIF1A is linked to fibrosis.