Accordingly, we found that the levels of inflammatory-related genes, including PTX3, CCL20, CXCL2, and CXCL3, were specifically down-regulated after knocking down TAZ in most HCC cell lines as well as in Taz KO Akt/NRas murine liver tumor tissues (Figures 13A and B and 14). Here, AKT1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.