A previous study identified mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase, known as malate dehydrogenase 2 (MDH2), as a DIF-1-binding protein (DBP) in human cervical cancer HeLa cells and further showed that DIF-1 inhibits MDH2 activity in vitro, but not that of MDH1 (cytoplasmic MDH), whereas DIF-3 affects neither MDH1 nor MDH2 activity [23]. Here, MDH2 is linked to cervical cancer.