OIT3 and neoplasm: Although LZP, as a secreted protein, was decreased or even disappeared in 90% of the hepatocellular carcinoma specimens, overexpression or knockdown of LZP had no effect on cell proliferation, and no tumor was found in the livers of LZP-null mice as old as one and one-half years, which implied that LZP downregulation might have been a byproduct of hepatocarcinogenesis [7].