While TGF-β plays a critical role in the progression of liver diseases, including initial liver injury, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma, TGF-β has been shown to inhibit HCV RNA replication and protein expression in a subgenomic HCV replicon system in a TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway-dependent manner [40]. Here, TGFB1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.