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Detection of malignant cells in pleural fluid or ascites by CD44v8-10/CD44v10 competitive RT-PCR
1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University.
Background:
CD44 is a cell surface adhesion molecule which has been implicated in various biologic functions as lymphocyte homing and activation, cellular migration and extracellular matrix adhesion. Over-expression of CD44v8-10 has been found in several cancers and is considered to be associated with tumor progression and metastasis. Recently, a novel molecular method, CD44v8-10/CD44v10 competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) has been developed for detecting cancer cells over-expressing CD44v8-10.
Methods:
We analyzed from benign and malignant pleural effusion and ascites by CD44 competitive RT-PCR and compared to the conventional cytology.
Results:
The CD44 competitive RT-PCR analysis showed that all the 24 samples associated with benign disease presented a predominant expression of the CD44v10 transcript (v8-10/v10 ratio: 0.126-0.948), whereas 6 of 7 malignant pleural samples associated with cytology positive cancer expressed the CD44v8-10 transcript (v8-10/v10 ratio > 1.00).
Conclusion:
These results indicate that CD44 competitive RT-PCR assay is a useful and adjunct to cytological examination in cancer diagnosis, especially in detecting exfoliated cancer cells in pleural effusion.