HIF1A and hepatocellular carcinoma: Moreover, Western blotting analysis was used to investigated the effects of ASP on the expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF at the protein level in HCC cells (SK-Hep1 and Hep-3B) under hypoxic conditions, and we found that the expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF at the protein level were significantly up-regulated in HCC cells upon hypoxic challenge compared with the normoxic conditions, while ASP could effectively suppress such up-regulation of HIF-1α and VEGF in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 2B).