Its expression is related to many diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, ischemia-reperfusion injuries, arterial calcifications, and atherosclerosis.CD73 is overexpressed in many cancers.
In turn, mice with genetically induced hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis expressed disturbed activities of ecto-5'nucleotidase and ecto-adenosine deaminase related to decreased production and increased degradation of extracellular adenosine.
The current findings implicate that as a result of shedding and loss of CD73 from the arterial wall, CD73 activity is elevated in the serum of patients with widespread atherosclerosis.