Abstract
The metastatic pancreas carcinoma cell line BSp73ASML produces a variety of different splice variants of the transmembrane glycoprotein CD44. The NH2-terminal portions are identical and heavily glycosylated. The variant sequences are inserted just outside the transmembrane region of the molecules. The two most abundant variants have 162 and 85 extra amino acids, respectively. When individually expressed, these suffice to establish metastatic properties in the nonmetastatic tumor cell line BSp73AS, as assayed by the spontaneous metastasis protocol.
Footnotes
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↵1 Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Grant He551/7-1. W. R. has been a recipient of a stipend of the Graduiertenförderung of Baden-Württemberg. K. H. H. receives a fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
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↵3 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe, Institut für Genetik, 7514 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
- Received June 12, 1992.
- Accepted January 11, 1993.
- ©1993 American Association for Cancer Research.
Volume 53, Issue 6
