Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2022 Sep 21;10(10):2351. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10102351

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2022 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Conclusion and hypothesized working mechanism of cathepsins in NASH-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Cathepsins are involved in NASH through actions in (1) apoptosis, (2) energy metabolism, and (3) immune stimulation, and they are involved in HCC through actions in (1) proliferation, (2) apoptosis, (3) angiogenesis, (4) invasion and metastasis, (5) deregulation of energy metabolism, and (6) evasion of the immune system. Cathepsins help to stimulate the immune system in NASH whereas they suppress the immune system in HCC.