ABSTRACT
AIM: To detect unknown CD44 variants(CD44v) in nasopharyngeal cancer by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) to analyze the expression of cell adhesion protein CD44 gene in nasopharyngeal cancer tissue and cell lines.METHODS: Specific primers at up start code,down terminal code of CD44 and primers at the middle,splicing points of variable splicing exon v10 of CD44 were designed.cDNA of nasopharyngeal cancer tissues,5-8F and HNE1 cell lines were analyzed by RT-PCR.Products of RT-PCR were sequenced and further analyzed by bioinformatics.RESULTS: The new CD44v sequence possessed 1634 bp with a completed open reading frame.The start code was at 12 bp site and terminal code at 1301bp site.It was predicted to code 429 amino acids,and only variable splicing exon 10 existed in the flexible region.It was given an accessible number EF581837 by GenBank.CONCLUSION: A new CD44 variant predicted to code 429 amino acids exists in the studied nasopharyngeal cancer tissues and cell lines.