CD44 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In this sense, it is worthy to mention that in certain HCC cell lines, TGF-β-treatment induces the expression of mesenchymal genes, such as VIM (vimentin), and the mesenchymal-related stem-related genes CD44 and CD90, but simultaneously, they express E-cadherin and the epithelial-related stem genes EPCAM or CD133 (177).