The CD44 protein is a major CSC marker, and CD44 also plays an indispensable role in the CSC properties in several cancers, including pancreatic cancer; however, no clinical approach exists to inhibit CD44 activity.
These data indicate that cancer stem-like cells were expanded during the acquisition of gemcitabine resistance and in therapeutic application, targeted therapy against the CD44 or ABC transporter inhibitors could be applied to overcome drug resistance in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
In gemcitabine group, the protein expression of pancreatic cancer stem cell surface markers including CD44, and ALDH was up-regulated, the protein and mRNA expression of nuclear transcription factor including Oct-4, Sox-2 and Nanog was also significantly increased (P<0.01).
Splice variants of CD44 expressed in a metastasizing cell line derived from a rat pancreatic adenocarcinoma have been shown recently to confer metastatic potential onto non-metastasizing rat pancreatic carcinoma and sarcoma cell lines.
Survival analysis also indicated that the high expression of EGFR, CDH1, ACTB, CD44, and VCL were significantly associated with poor prognosis in pancreatic carcinoma.
The correlation between the CD44 expression and the clinicopathological factors of patients with pancreatic cancer was analyzed by the software SPSS 13.0.
The present study aimed to investigate the expression patterns of the pancreatic cancer stem cell surface markers cluster of differentiation CD44 and CD24 in a pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line, and to investigate the possible mechanisms for their radiation resistance.