Expression of CD44 in OSA cell lines

2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 11671467
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Orthopaedic surgery
• Research Institution: Kurume University
• Principal Investigator: NARITA Syugo Kurume University, School of Medicine, assistant, 医学部, 助手 (10237604)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ZENMYO Michihisa Kurume University, School of Medicine, assistant, 医学部, 助手 (10289465) ; HIRAOKA Koji Kurume University, School of Medicine, assistant, 医学部, 助手 (10268914) ; KOMIYA Setsuro Kagoshima University, School of Medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (30178371)
• Project Period (FY): 1999 – 2000
• Keywords: CD44 / osteosarcoma sells / chemoraxis / merastasis

Research Abstract

CD44 is a receptor for hyaluronic acid and seems to be a key molecule for metastasis. Hyaluronic acid is one of acid mucopolysaccharide existing in the cartilage, synovium, bone, and joint fluid. Recently, some reports suggested that cancer cells stimulated fibroblasts to produce hyaluronic acid. In this study, we investigated whether osteosarcoma cells expressed CD44 on its membrane and whether hyaluronic acid concerned with chemotaxis of osteosarcoma cells or not.
Flow cytometric analysis showed that cultured osteosarcoma cells have expressed CD44 on its membrane. And RT-PCR analysis using a primer containing different exon suggested the existence of some mutation in its gene. Culture medium containing hyaluronic acid decreased the amount of CD44 on the membrane. This result indicated that hyaluronic acid is a ligand for CD44 of osteosarcoma cells and the decrease of CD44 resulted from the binding with hyaluronic acid. Furthermore, we showed that hyaluronic acid stimulated chemotaxis of osteosarcoma cells using a transwell chanber. These findings demonstrated that the expression of CD44 on the cell membrane played an important role in chemotaxis followed by metastasis.