We also noted that similar to the rC2 HB, several liver progenitor markers, such as AFP [16], TACSTD1 [41], KRT19 [16,22], KRT7 [22], PROM1 (CD133) [41,42], THY1 (CD90) [42] and VIM [22], are significantly up-regulated in the H-JNK1 HCC samples relative to the L-JNK1 HCC samples (Additional file 10). Here, MAPK8 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.