TGFB1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To explore NPC1’s role in regulating TGF-β pathway and HCC progression in vivo, we utilized CRISPR-Cas9 system to generate liver-specific conditional Npc1 knockout (CreAlbNpc1F/F) and control mice (Npc1F/F) (Fig. 7a) for analysis in the DEN-CCl4 induced HCC model (Fig. 7b).