BAX and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Therefore, we then determined the expression levels of apoptosis-related proteins in NPC cells, and Western blotting revealed that ANXA2 knockdown caused an increase in the pro-apoptotic Bax protein expression, a reduction in the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein expression and a rise in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, while ANXA2 overexpression resulted in a reduction in Bax protein expression, an increase in Bcl-2 expression and a decrease in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, which was in agreement with previous findings (52).