MMP9 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In addition,reduced expression in malignant hepatocytes of genesinvolved in inflammatory control, together with decreasedNFKB1 – a central regulator of inflammation (Wang P. et al.,2023) – points to an important role for interactions betweenhepatocytes and the immune system in HCC development,warranting further experimental and theoretical investigation.The identified network hubs (NFKB1, MMP9, BCL2, A4,CDN1A, CDK1, ERBB2, G3P, MCL1, FOXO1) may serveas useful targets for modulating apoptosis in hepatocytes inHCC therapy, an increasingly promising direction (Ladd etal., 2024; Wu et al., 2024).