CASP1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To explore the role of autophagy in hypoxia-induced caspase-1/IL1B activation, immunoblot and Q-PCR analyses were performed, and we observed that autophagy levels in two HCC cell lines were enhanced under hypoxia conditions and targeting CD44s could further increase autophagic activities, suggesting that CD44s deficiency contributed to autophagy induction and IL1B decrease both in normoxia and hypoxia conditions (Fig. 6g, Fig. S4a, b).