ADIPOQ and hepatocellular carcinoma: More specifically, adiponectin treatment induced apoptosis and inhibited the proliferation of HCC HepG2 and HuH7 cells lines in vitro, mainly by increasing the phosphorylation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which subsequently led to the decreased activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) [56].