“…Intriguingly, deletion of SphK2 reduced accumulation of hepatic p62 in male but not female mice fed a WD. This is especially important since p62 elevation precedes HCC development in mice and humans, contributes to its development by enhancing survival of stressed HCC-initiating cells that allows them to acquire multiple oncogenic mutations, and p62 correlates with worse patient survival [ 6 , 58 ]. Our data suggests that SphK2 could be a regulator of p62 in males, which affects their susceptibility to liver cancer.…”