VIM and hepatocellular carcinoma: Because current studies indicated that LASP1 had the capability of promoting EMT in glioma cells and colorectal cancer cells [20, 21], and the interaction of LASP1 and vimentin was also reported [25], in the present study, we were interested in examining whether LASP1 could induce EMT via vimentin in HCC mediated by HBX.