Abstract

The Molecular Alterations Regarding Apoptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells at a Glance

Yi Yuan, Yu Sheng Zhang and Xian-Jun Qu

Ranking one of the most critical worldwide health troubles relating to mortality, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been a grievous scourge of humanity for a long time. Despite that plentiful attempts have been made, it still remains being a great challenge for us to conquer this disease. Multiple molecular alterations can be frequently detected in the pathogenesis and development of HCC, such as members of Ras family, Bcl-2 family and tumor suppressors. Importantly, most of these alterations are responsible for disrupting the balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis, which has been generally voted as a key event closely associated with carcinogenesis. Hence, this review aims to update the current related articles and provide a further understanding about such molecular changes relevant to trigger imbalances in the regulation of apoptosis in HCC.