The in vivo experiments in subcutaneous and orthotopic transplantation mouse models demonstrated that tumour growth was suppressed by POSTN downregulation in HCC cells with high POSTN expression and enhanced by POSTN upregulation in HCC cells with low POSTN expression (Fig. 2E-F), indicating that POSTN expression is closely associated with the tumorigenicity of HCC cells. The gene discussed is POSTN; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.