Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is a nucleotide-editing enzyme, and aberrant expression of AID induced by inflammatory responses contributes to hepatocarcinogenesis via the accumulation of genetic alterations in various tumor-related genes.
Our findings suggest that the aberrant expression of AID is observed in human hepatocytes with several pathological settings, including chronic liver disease and HCC, which might enhance the genetic susceptibility to mutagenesis leading to hepatocarcinogenesis.