CXCR4 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Mechanistically, APS upregulated the epithelial marker E-cadherin while downregulating the mesenchymal marker vimentin and the chemokine receptor CXCR4 at both mRNA and protein levels, suggesting that APS suppress liver cancer cell growth and metastasis by inhibiting the EMT process (Figure 5), which illustrates the inhibitory role of APS on the EMT and metastatic progression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.