Osteopontin (OPN) plays important roles in tumor progression and metastasis through binding to OPN receptors such as alpha(v)beta(beta) integrin and CD44, and its overexpression in tumor is associated poor clinical outcome of NSCLC patients.
Our analyses demonstrated, that although the melanoma CD44 fingerprint is qualitatively stable, quantitative changes are observed suggesting a possible role in tumour progression.
Overexpression of variant isoforms of CD44 (CD44v) is most commonly linked to cancer progression, whereas their loss is associated with inhibition of tumor growth.
Perturbations of the hyaluronan-CD44 interaction at the plasma membrane by various antagonists result in attenuation of receptor tyrosine kinase and transporter activities and inhibition of tumor progression in vivo.
Recent studies have shown that some variant forms of CD44, a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed on various cell surfaces, might be involved in tumor progression or tumor metastasis.
Syndecan-1 is a cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan with various biological functions relevant to tumor progression and inflammation, including cell-cell adhesion, cell-matrix interaction, and cytokine signaling driving cell proliferation and motility.
The cell membrane receptor CD44 is associated with cancer progression and has been recognized as a cancer stem cell marker including ovarian cancer, becoming a suitable candidate to be targeted by gPTX-L therapy.
The expression of some CD44 isoforms has been shown to be involved in tumor progression and metastatic spread in a rat carcinoma model and in human carcinomas.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether CD44 v3-containing isoforms are involved in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumor progression.
The overexpression of CD44 in cancer cells reroutes number of oncogenic pathways including the central Pi3K/Akt/NF-kB pathway leading to cancer progression and malignancy.
The results suggest that expression of CD44 in these cutaneous epithelial tumors is not related to malignant transformation, but instead may be related to tumor progression and the ability to metastasize.
These findings indicate that in endometrial carcinomas, expression of individual variant CD44 exons is markedly up-regulated, but this molecule may not be useful as a consistent indicator of tumor progression.