Identification of the major E-selectin binding protein in metastatic breast cancer cells as human CD44.

A: Gel-code staining of proteins eluted from an exE-selectin/Fc affinity column. A 170 kD protein indicated by the arrow was selected as a potential ligand of E-selectin in tumor cells since 130 kD and 50 kD protein bands were confirmed as exE-selectin/Fc and IgG heavy chain, respectively. B: matching of the 10 amino acid N-terminal peptide sequence (red) of the 170 kD purified protein with that of human CD44. C: Western blot analysis of five breast cancer cell lines with anti-CD44H antibody.