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We therefore conclude that MUC18 is expressed at higher levels in pre-malignant and malignant prostatic epithelium, including metastasis. We suggest that over-expression of MUC18 may be a new marker of human prostate cancer and also implicates its possible role in development and progression of prostate cancer.

Enforced expression of human metastasis cell adhesion molecule/MUC18 increases prostate tumorigenesis in vivo and may affect the process by increasing proliferation, up-regulating the AKT survival pathway, and augmenting the angiogenic ability of prostate cancer cells.

Human MCAM/MUC18 has been shown to increase metastasis of human melanoma cells in xenograft mouse systems. To be more relevant to understanding the progression of clinical melanoma and for designing better preclinical therapeutic trials, it is highly desirable to establish a syngeneic mouse model for studying the mechanisms of MCAM/MUC18-mediated tumorigenesis and metastasis of melanoma cells. To reach this goal, we transfected the mouse MCAM/MUC18 (moMCAM/MUC18) cDNA into two MCAM/MUC18-minus, low-metastatic mouse melanoma K1735 sublines, K1735-10 (tumor À