STAG3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Furthermore, to investigate the expression of STAG3 in HCC, a normal hepatocyte line (MIHA) and HCC cell lines (BEL-7404, Huh-7, SMMC-7721 and HLE) were used for RT–qPCR detection, and the results showed that STAG3 expression was downregulated in HCC cells compared with normal hepatocytes (Fig. 1C).