BECN1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: However, how BNIP3L-mediated mitochondrial autophagy is regulated at the molecular level is not well studied, although it has been shown that the Beclin 1 autophagy gene plays an important role in cell growth control and tumor suppression in vivo, and Beclin 1 heterozygous deletion of mice exhibited accelerated development of hepatitis B virus-induced HCC [126].