Research article Dynamic regulation of CD24 and the invasive, CD44 pos CD24 neg phenotype in breast cancer cell lines

Introduction The invasive, mesenchymal phenotype of CD44posCD24neg breast cancer cells has made them a promising target for eliminating the metastatic capacity of primary tumors. It has been previously demonstrated that CD44 neg/low CD24 pos breast cancer cells lack the ability to give rise to their invasive CD44posCD24neg counterpart. Here we demonstrate that noninvasive, epithelial-like CD44 pos CD24 pos cells readily give rise to invasive, mesenchymal CD44 pos CD24 neg progeny in vivo and in vitro. This interconversion was found to be dependent upon Activin/Nodal signaling.