Zhang Y, et al. - Researchers sought to determine how Estrogen Receptor-β (ERβ)-mediated Notch signaling pathway is involved in the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis in liver cancer cells. They transfected HepG2 cells (Pbi-EGFP-ER) with ERβ that mediated by liposome, and normal HepG2 cells (Blank) and empty plasmid-transfected HepG2 cells (Pbi-EGFP-C) were used as controls. Relative to Blank and Bi-EGFP-C group, higher ERβ expression was observed in Pbi-EGFP-E group among HepG2 cells. Inhibition of HepG2 cell proliferation, migration, invasion and Ki67 protein expression, as well as promotion of apoptosis, Bcl-2 and Bax expression, was observed in correlation with overexpression of ERβ. Notch1, Notch2 and Hes1 expression decreased with overexpression of ERβ. Low ERβ expression had contrary effect to that of high ERβ expression in Huh7 cells. Reversion of the effect of shERβ on the volume and weight of transplanted tumors was observed in the shERβ + DAPT group. Findings suggest a possible efficacy of ERβ in inhibiting the development of liver cancer and in promoting apoptosis via hindering the Notch pathway.