Given the activation of the IFN-γ pathway in MICA+ tumor cells (Figure 3e,f) and the role of IRF1 as a key transcription factor in this pathway, which is also an upstream regulator of PROS1 (Figure 6b,d,e,h), along with the observed increase in PROS1 expression coinciding with MICA expression in HCC cells (Figure 6c,f,g,i), our study aimed to investigate whether IRF1+ and MICA+ HCC cells induce MMP9 expression in macrophages through a cellular co-culture model. Here, MMP9 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.