CD44, an adhesion molecule that binds to the extracellular matrix, primarily to hyaluronan (HA), has been implicated in cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis. CD44 has also recently been recognized as a marker for stem cells of several types of cancer. However, the roles of CD44 in the development of bone metastasis are unclear. Here, we addressed this issue by using bone metastatic c...

We previously reported that CD44-positive cells were candidates for astrocyte precursor cells in the developing cerebellum, because cells expressing high levels of CD44 selected by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) gave rise only to astrocytes in vitro. However, whether CD44 is a specific cell marker for cerebellar astrocyte precursor cells in vivo is unknown. In this study, we used im...

BACKGROUND The most common malignant salivary gland tumors that affect both adult and children is mucoepidermoid carcinoma. It usually affects both minor and major salivary glands but parotid gland is considering the most common site in which this tumor arises. CD44, a trans-membrane glycoprotein, is an adhesion molecule of cell surface that play a role in the connections between cell-cell and ...

The expression of osteopontin (OPN), CD44 variants, and integrins has been correlated with tumorigenesis and metastasis. Here we show that these proteins cooperate to enhance cell motility. First, we demonstrate that several different CD44 variants bind to OPN in an arginine-glycineaspartic acid-independent manner, but that the standard form of CD44 does not. These CD44 variants bind to both th...

V3 interneurons (INs) are a major group of excitatory commissural interneurons in the spinal cord, and they are essential for producing a stable and robust locomotor rhythm. V3 INs are generated from the ventral-most progenitor domain, p3, but migrate dorsally and laterally during postmitotic development. At birth, they are located in distinctive clusters in the ventral horn and deep dorsal hor...

Deciphering antibody specificities that constrain human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope (Env) diversity, limit virus replication, and contribute to neutralization breadth and potency is an important goal of current HIV/AIDS vaccine research. Transplantation of discrete HIV-1 neutralizing epitopes into HIV-2 scaffolds may provide a sensitive, biologically functional context by whi...

CD44 is a ubiquitous surface molecule that exists as a number of isoforms, generated by alternative splicing of 10 "variant" exons. Little is known about the expression and function of the variant isoforms, except that certain isoforms may play a role in cancer metastasis. We produced mAbs against CD44 variant regions encoded by exons 4v, 6v, and 9v, by immunizing mice with a fusion protein spa...

CD44 and EpCAM play crucial roles in intraperitoneal ovarian cancer development. In this study, we developed an RNA-based bispecific CD44-EpCAM aptamer that is capable of blocking CD44 and EpCAM simultaneously by fusing single CD44 and EpCAM aptamers with a double stranded RNA adaptor. With the aid of a panel of ovarian cancer cell lines, we found that bispecific CD44-EpCAM aptamer was much mor...

In current study, cancer stem-like cells in the murine melanoma B16F10 cells were investigated. CD phenotypes of the B16F10 cells were analyzed by flow cytometry, and the specific CD phenotype cells from the B16F10 cells were isolated by MACS. Then we used colony formation assay in soft agar media, the cell growth assay in serum-free culture media as well as the tumorigenicity investigation of ...

Abstract Background Owing to the limited amount of research, there are no nanoparticle-based anticancer agents that use hydrophilic drugs. Therefore, we developed irinotecan-loaded self-agglomerating hyaluronan nanoparticles (ISHNs). While irinotecan has high hydrophilicity, resulting nanoparticle should possess drug-loading capacity and allow selective targeting cluster differentiation 44 (CD4...