To determine whether the abnormally upregulated lipidome in HCC was related to the expression of USPs, we examined the expression of USPs in the above 10 pairs of cancer and adjacent normal tissues and found that USP22 was the most significantly high expressed USP member (Fig. 1e, f; Supplementary Fig. 1b), and this high expression USP22 was significantly correlated with lipids and lipid-like metabolites upregulation (Fig. 1g). This evidence concerns the gene USP22 and hepatocellular carcinoma.