Expression of CD44 splice variants in spontaneous murine tumors

CD44 is a widely distributed set of cell surface glycoproteins expressed in several types of cells and tissues, implicated in cell-cell and cell-subst rate interactions. This molecule plays a major role in cell differentiation , development and activation and has also been described as a potential mar ker of malignancy and metastasis. In the present study we investigated by R T-PCR followed by exon specific amplification the expression of CD44 splice variants in four different murine tumors as well as in the invaded or ans in order to correlate the expression of CD44 variants with potential tumor invasiveness and their implications for growth. Our data showed deregulatio n in the expression of CD44 isoforms but no discernible correlation in isof orm expression pattern. However, in all tumors studied isoforms presented b y the primary tumor were detected in the invaded organs before metastasis c ould be demonstrated by histopathological analysis.