The findings that miR-148a transfection attenuated CD90 and CD44 (cancer stem cell markers) expression in HCC [21] along with the fact that miR-148a as a hepatospecific miRNA is highly expressed in adult liver [22] suggest that the decrease of miR-148a in HCC is likely to reflect repression of the miRNA in cancer cells rather than stromal cells. Here, CD44 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.