STAT6 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Zinc/iron-regulated transporter-like protein (Zip) 9, which is associated with zinc uptake, is highly expressed in M2-TAMs of HCC and promotes M2 polarization by activating the STAT6 signaling pathway, while inhibiting M1 polarization by inhibiting IκBα/β signaling (Gou et al., 2022).