As consistently shown by qRT-PCR and Western blot, CD44 was abundantly expressed in mesenchymal SMMC-7721 and MHCC97-H cells, which have higher E-cadherin and lower N-cadherin than the epithelial Huh7 and HepG2 cells, indicating that the CD44 level was associated with maintenance of the mesenchymal phenotype in HCC cell lines. The gene discussed is CD44; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.