CASP3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Our in vitro functional results revealed that KIF20A silence attenuated the proliferation and increased capsase-3 and -9 activities of HCC cells, consistent with studies showing that KIF20A promoted cell proliferation in pancreatic [35], ovarian [36], bladder [37] and lung cancer [38]; caspase-3 and -9 are two key mediators in the apoptotic signaling pathways, and our results may imply that KIF20A knockdown repressed HCC cell proliferation cells via enhancing activities of cell apoptotic signaling pathway.