Importantly, as a winner in cell competition, CCHuh7R and CCPLC-PRF-5R exhibited more outstanding mitophagy activities for eliminating aberrant mitochondria in TEM when compared with Huh7R or PLC-PRF-5R (Fig. 4C; Supplemental Fig. S4C) which was consistent with reports in sorafenib resistant HCC cells [30, 31]; moreover, higher expression of mitophagy-related protein levels (LC3B, BNIP3) and lower expression of TOMM20 representing mitochondria mass were further observed in cells (Fig. 4D, E; Supplemental Fig. S4D, E). This evidence concerns the gene TOMM20 and hepatocellular carcinoma.