CD44 and cancer: Additionally, the Western blot analysis and qRT-PCR demonstrated that USP6NL abrogation in U87MG-R and T98G-R cells inhibits the expression of USP6NL, pluripotency and cancer stem cell markers (CD44 and CD133), transcription factors (Nanog and SOX2), and the efflux transporter (ABCG2), both at the protein and mRNA level in the U87MG-R and T98G-R (shUSP6NL transfected) cells compared with the control (scramble) cells (Figure 4D,E).