Figure 1.

Lactate is produced by a variety of pathways. Lactates are mainly produced by the aerobic glycolysis pathway and the glutamine pathway. Glucose metabolism reprogramming in HCC promotes glucose uptake by the glucose transporter GLUT1/2. HK2, GAPDH, PKM2 and LDHA are upregulated under the regulation of a variety of cytokines to accelerate lactate production. Glutamine is transported into mitochondria, where it produces α-ketoglutaric acid under the action of GDH, followed by participation in the TCA cycle to produce malate, and finally transported out of the mitochondria to produce lactate.