Cell culture
The normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells line (HUVEC) and the HCC cell lines HepG2 andHep3B were procured from the Cell Bank of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, China. Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM; Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), 100 mg/ml streptomycin and 100 IU/ml penicillin was employed to culture these cells. The temperature of the culture was kept at 37 ° C, and the CO2 level was kept at 5%.