Overexpression of variant isoforms of CD44 (CD44v) is most commonly linked to cancer progression, whereas their loss is associated with inhibition of tumor growth.
Expression of none of the CD44 variant epitopes was found to be positively correlated with tumour progression or with colorectal tumour metastasis to the liver, results which are inconsistent with a role for CD44 variants as indicators of colonic cancer progression.
CD44 variant proteins have been implicated in tumor progression and metastasis, and a correlation with adverse prognosis has been demonstrated in a variety of human tumors.
Functional and correlative data implicate a role of CD44 variant isoforms in adhesion dependent processes such as lymphocyte recirculation and tumor progression and metastasis.
A large variety of alternatively spliced CD44 variants are expressed by different tumors with possible implication for tumor progression, formation of metastasis and survival.
This article summarizes briefly the present knowledge on known functions of CD44 isoforms with particular focus on parallels between physiological programs and tumor progression.
Cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44) is a receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA) and HA-binding has been proven to participate in various biological tumor activities, including tumor progression, metastasis and drug resistance.
Downregulation of AZGP1 by Ikaros and histone deacetylase promotes tumor progression through the PTEN/Akt and CD44s pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Dual luciferase assay revealed that CD44 was a direct target of miR-34a in renal cancer cells and CD44 knockdown by RNAi in renal cancer cells suppressed tumor progression.
This study sought to evaluate the expression of CD44 standard (CD44s) and CD44v6 in primary, metastatic and recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer to explore the potential association of CD44s and CD44v6 with tumor progression and recurrence.
In conclusion, our findings revealed that EMP3 might be a potential target for CD44-high GBMs and highlight the essential functions of EMP3 in TGF-β/Smad2/3 signaling activation and tumor progression.
A complex preclinical experimental set-up was established to separately test the different steps of tumour progression and the role of tumour microenvironment, respectively, focusing on the role of 'CD44' in this process.