CD44 is the major cell-surface receptor for hyaluronan, and cell-matrix interactions mediated by the CD44/hyaluronan receptor-ligand pair are involved in a variety of cellular functions, including cell migration. The aim of the study presented here was to examine the expression of CD44 and hyaluronan in the mesangial proliferative response in rat anti-Thy-1 nephritis. In normal rat kidney, CD44...

Murine CD44 is a cell surface glycoprotein that is thought to play a role in leukocyte migration. We studied the structure and expression of CD44 on two populations of macrophages: those that reside in the peritoneum of unprimed mice, and those that have been elicited to migrate into the peritoneum by the intraperitoneal injection of agents that cause localized inflammatory responses. Our studi...

BACKGROUND Cells within breast cancer stem cell populations have been confirmed to have a CD44(+)CD24(-) phenotype. Strong expression of CD44 plays a critical role in numerous types of human cancers. CD44 is involved in cell differentiation, adhesion, and metastasis of cancer cells. METHODS In this study, we reduced CD44 expression in CD44(+)CD24(-) breast cancer stem cells and investigated t...

A blockade of CD44 can interfere with haematopoietic and leukemic stem cell homing, the latter being considered as a therapeutic option in haematological malignancies. We here aimed to explore the molecular mechanism underlying the therapeutic efficacy of anti-CD44. We noted that in irradiated mice reconstituted with a bone marrow cell transplant, anti-CD44 exerts a stronger effect on haematopo...

Cell migration and phagocytosis are both important for controlling Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and are critically dependent on the reorganization of the cytoskeleton. Since CD44 is an adhesion molecule involved in inflammatory responses and is connected to the actin cytoskeleton, we investigated the role of CD44 in both these processes. Macrophage (Mphi) recruitment into M. tuberculosi...

Interaction of CD44, an adhesion molecule, with its extracellular matrix ligand, hyaluronan (HA), has been suggested to play a critical role in a number of biological manifestations, including cell migration, tumorigenesis, metastasis, and regulation of immune responses. CD44 comprises a large family of transmembrane glycoproteins that exhibit extensive molecular heterogeneity. This heterogenei...

CD44 is an integral membrane glycoprotein that functions as a receptor for the extracellular matrix glycan, hyaluronan. Here we report that CD44 is a novel biomarker for non-small cell lung tumors, squamous metaplasia of the lung, and activated type II pneumocytes. We have examined the expression of CD44 in 12 human lung tumor cell lines and 23 fixed, paraffin-embedded lung cancers. CD44 transc...

CD44, the major cell surface receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA), was shown to localize to detergentresistant cholesterol-rich microdomains, called lipid rafts, in fibroblasts and blood cells. Here, we have investigated the molecular environment of CD44 within the plane of the basolateral membrane of polarized mammary epithelial cells. We show that CD44 partitions into lipid rafts that contain an...

CD44 is described to be an activation molecule in a number of different cell types. We investigated the role of CD44 on human endothelial cells (EC) and in tumor angiogenesis. Using flow cytometry we showed that EC from the vasculature of human solid tumors display an enhanced expression of CD44 as compared to EC from normal tissue. This finding was confirmed by immunohistochemical studies on f...