ALDH1A1 and colorectal carcinoma: To investigate this phenomenon, we compared JAK2 expression levels between CSCs and non-CSCs based on putative CSC surface markers previously reported in CRC, such as CD44 variant 6 (CD44v6) [18], leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) [19], and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A1 (ALDH1A1) [20, 21], and found that JAK2 expression was highly enriched in CSC populations compared to that in their counterparts (Fig. 3b).