Subsequently, we investigated the function of EMP1 on glioma stem cells and found that it regulates the expression of CD44 in such cells to promote stemness.
To explore the potential role of CD44 as a prognostic biomarker in low grade gliomas (LGG), the mRNA expression levels of CD44 in tissues from 12 patients with glioma were evaluated by microarray analysis.
Significance of Glioma Stem-Like Cells in the Tumor Periphery That Express High Levels of CD44 in Tumor Invasion, Early Progression, and Poor Prognosis in Glioblastoma.
Collectively, these findings advance our understanding of GBM biology by establishing tGLI1 as a novel transcriptional activator of CD44 and a novel mediator of mesenchymal GBM and GSC.<b>Significance:</b> These findings highlight the role of a tumor-specific gain-of-function transcription factor tGLI1 in mesenchymal glioma stem cell maintenance and mesenchymal GBM growth.<i></i>.
GKRK is a peptide ligand of heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) over-expressed on angiogenesis and glioma, presenting excellent glioma-homing property.
Here, we demonstrate that the survival outcomes of genetically induced glioma-bearing mice and of high-grade human glioma patients are biphasically correlated with CD44 level, with the poorest outcomes occurring at intermediate levels.
To determine whether CD44 is an appropriate marker of glioma stem cells (GSCs), we manipulated CD44 expression using intrinsic (CD44 knockdown, CD44<sup>kd</sup>) and extrinsic (HA supplement, HA<sup>+</sup>) methods.
Our findings show re-activation of the embryonic-type transcriptional regulation of SPP1 in malignant gliomas and point to the importance of SPP1-CD44 interactions in self-renewal and pluripotency glioma initiating cells.
Both GBM tissues and glioma cell lines (U87 / U373) demonstrated membranous expression of moesin and CD44, as revealed by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, respectively.
Treatment of glioma cells with the Rho-kinase (ROK) inhibitor Y27632, or with EGCg, a green tea catechin with anti-MMP and anti-angiogenesis activities, antagonized both RhoA- and MT1-MMP-induced CD44 shedding.
There was a gradient of expression amongst gliomas with high grade gliomas expressing more RHAMM and CD44 than did lower grade lesions or did normal human astrocytes or non-neoplastic specimens of human brain.
Invasion of cells derived from those gliomas carrying the rearranged CD44 gene locus was decreased by about 50% compared with gliomas without rearrangement, indicating that the altered hybridization patterns in the two glioma samples influenced CD44H mediated glioma cell invasion through hyaluronic acid in vitro.