NLK and hepatocellular carcinoma: Ji et al. [6,7] revealed that the miR-181 family are highly expressed in epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM)+AFP+ cells of HCC and maintained the CSC characteristics through targeting caudal type homeobox 2 (CDX2), GATA binding protein 6 (GATA6) and nemo-like kinase (NLK), which are essential for hepatic cell differentiation through regulating Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway.