SPP1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In particular, the behavior of the apelinergic axis (APLN), Osteopontin (OPN or SPP1), osteoprotegerin (OPG/TNFRSF11B), apoptotic markers Bcl-2, BCLXL, NOTCH-1 ad inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α, PTX3, and NPTX2) was deeply analyzed in patients submitted to primary, whole-size, liver transplantation and in deceased donors, providing new evidence on the expression of these biomarkers in HCC, as reported in our recent works [19–22], filling, at least in part, the gaps present in HCC literature about their trend.