GJA1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In addition, GJA1 expression was significantly increased in lung metastases from HCCs and HCCLM3 cells that had a high propensity for lung metastasis, compared to HCCs without metastasis and HCC cells with less malignant potentials, which is highly consistent with observations made by Ogawa et al. using a rat model of HCC [47].