BAX and hepatocellular carcinoma: Western blotting was employed to assess the expression of the key molecules in the Hippo signaling pathway, demonstrating that YAP, cyclinD1 and Bcl-2 were significantly down-regulated, while Bax, caspase-3 (P17/P19), P21 and P27 were up-regulated in HCC cells cultured at 43 °C (Fig. 5C).