NT5E and cirrhosis of liver: NT5E is regulated by alternative splicing, producing a second transcript, NT5E-2 in liver cirrhosis and HCC;NT5E-2 is specific to humans and produces a protein product known as CD73 short (CD73s) that lacks enzyme activity (lacks exon 7) and is localized to the cytoplasm;NT5E-2 is expressed at baseline in many normal human tissues;CD73s expression is 6–8-fold higher in HCC compared to normal liver tissues, whereas CD73 (NT5E) mRNA is dramatically deceased (>90%) in HCC