SMAD3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Both in vivo (HCC patients, DEN-induced HCC rat model) and in vitro (HepG2, Bel7402, MHCC97H, and HCCLM3) results indicate that TGF-β1-induced EMT is dependent on Smad3-mediated Snail transcription and crosstalk of STAT3 signals in HCC cells (30).