CASP3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: This study demonstrates that LASS2 overexpression contributes to the stabilization and accumulation of p53 protein in the nucleus of wild-type and mutant hepatoma cell lines, enhances the role of p53 in the regulation of downstream target gene activation or inhibition, and is involved in causing apoptosis (Bcl-2, Bax, Cyto-c, Cleaved caspase-3 and 9), EMT (Snail, Slug, N-cadherin, E-cadherin and vimentin), and ECM (MMP2 and MMP9) genes.