CD44 and cancer: Furthermore, the optic nerve contained a significantly higher population of CD90+, CD105+, and CD44+ cells than sciatic nerve, which are markers of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent cells that harbor the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell types.27 Previous studies reported that MSCs perform a critical role in the suppression of immune responses.27,47 Recent studies have also focused on cancer stem cell markers, which mostly overlap with MSC markers, and these CD90-, CD105-, CD44-, CD27-, and CD73-expressing cells represent immunoevasion.