EXPRESSION OF THE CD44 ADHESION MOLECULE IN PRIMARY AND METASTATIC GYNECOLOGIC MALIGNANCIES AND THEIR CELL-LINES

CD44 is a cell-surface molecule that has been shown to have several sp licing isoforms. In various human tumors, such as primary colon and br east tumors, and their metastases, alterations of CD44 isoform express ion have been reported, The present study was performed to investigate CD44 alternative transcript splicing in gynecologic malignancies. We performed reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) ana lysis of CD44 splice variant expression on mRNA transcripts from ovari an carcinomas (six primary and 15 metastatic tumors) from 21 patients and from cervical carcinomas (25 primary and two metastatic tumors) fr om 25 patients. We also performed this analysis on five different ovar ian carcinoma cell lines established from ascitic fluid and primary tu mors, and two cervical carcinoma cell lines. We included eight normal female genital tissue specimens and one additional placenta specimen i n our RT-PCR analysis for comparison with CD44 expression of carcinoma s. The CD44H isoform was amplified in all of the specimens. None of ei ght normal tissue specimens, including myometrium and ovary, expressed CD44R1 transcripts. But the CD44R1 transcript was expressed in 2/6 (3 3.3%) primary ovarian carcinomas and in 7/15 (46.6%) metastatic ovaria n carcinomas. In cervical carcinoma, 13/25 (52.0%) primary tumors and 2/2 (100.0%) metastatic tumors expressed CD44R1. The CD44R1 transcript was expressed increasingly during ovarian and cervical tumor progress ion (P=0.026 and P=0.002, respectively). In conclusion, the frequency of CD44R1 transcript expression increased during ovarian and cervical carcinoma progression, and analysis of CD44 splice variants may be use ful in detecting primary and metastatic gynecologic malignancies.