Western blot assay showed that TRIM54 was inversely correlated with the expression levels of Axin1(r=-0.76, p = 0.005) and significantly correlated with the mRNA levels of c-myc (r=0.79, p = 0.048), CCND1 (r=0.73, p = 0.021), and MMP7 (r=0.81, p = 0.005) in 10 freshly collected clinical HCC samples (Figure 7A). This evidence concerns the gene MMP7 and hepatocellular carcinoma.