STC1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To investigate whether CAF-derived STC1 affects HCC stemness, MHCC-97H and SNU-398 cells were cultured in different media: DMEM, conditioned medium of CAFs (CAF-CM), CAF-CM supplemented with 1 μg/ml IgG (CAF-CM + IgG), CAF-CM supplemented with the STC1 neutralizing antibody (1 μg/ml, CAF-CM + STC1-Ab), and DMEM supplemented with recombinant human STC1 protein (rhSTC1, 20 ng/ml).