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Updated: Jan 6, 2026
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Published on: August 5, 2011
Identification of CD7 as a novel biomarker of embryonal hepatoblastoma
Ahmad Adawy1,2,3, Daiki Yoshii1, Hiroki Hirao1,2
1Department of Cell Pathology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Honjo 1-1-1, Chuouku, Kumamoto, 860-8556, Japan.
Purpose:
This study aimed to investigate the expression of cluster of differentiation 7 (CD7) in hepatoblastoma (HB) and its potential use as a novel biomarker of HB.
Methods:
CD7 expression was investigated in human HB samples at the gene level by bulk, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomic analyses, in addition to the protein level by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. CD7 gene expression-based survival analysis was also conducted, along with gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of the CD7-SECTM1 receptor-ligand gene pair.
Results:
CD7 was differentially expressed in human HB at both the gene level by various bioinformatics analyses, and the protein level by IHC, with remarkably higher expression levels in embryonal HB. Conversely, CD7 was not expressed in other primary adult liver tumors. CD7high HB cases showed poorer 5-year event-free survival (P = 0.016), and GSEA demonstrated that CD7 is linked to the embryonal MYCN transcription factor, as were protumor kinases such as JAK3, and marginally MAPK14 and MAPK3.
Conclusion:
CD7 is expressed in human HB, especially the embryonal histological subtype, and appears to be linked to tumor progression and poor clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, CD7-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T cells could be proposed as a promising immunotherapy for embryonal HB.
