A PCR-BASED METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN CD44 SPLICE PRODUCTS

CD44 is a transmembrane glycoprotein involved in the interaction betwe en cells and extracellular matrix. Several variant forms of CD44 exist , which differ from each other in the composition of both the intra- a nd extracellular domain of the protein. Post-translational modificatio n and alternative RNA processing are responsible for this variation. R ecently, it was found that certain variant CD44 proteins, containing e xtra sequences in the extracellular domain of the protein, are involve d in metastatic spread of tumor cells. Variant CD44 proteins are also involved in immunological functions of T and 8 cells. A large variety of alternatively spliced CD44 mRNAs can be expressed by cells. We have developed a method for the analysis of CD44 mRNAs present in the cell . This reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based method can be used to analyze the exon composition of each major CD44 mRNA species present in the cell. In this study we describe the analys is of CD44 mRNAs isolated from six different human cell lines.