These data indicate that CD44 expression might be related to the tumor infiltration in GC, and that patients suffering from GC or other common astrocytomas do not have a significantly increased frequency of the tumor cell motility-favoring Arg(388) FGFR4 allele.
If variant chains (CD44v) are not found in gliomas and if this large series of low- and high-grade gliomas show no difference in CD44 expression, other factors must be explored to understand the differential behavior of low- and high-grade astrocytomas.
The level of CD44 mRNA was correlated with the surface expression of CD44 antigens (50B4) in several leukemic cell lines, in astrocytoma lines and in normal granulocytes.