CD44 and leukemia: For instance, sinusoidal vessels express several adhesion molecules vital for cell dormancy and leukemia progression.188 Leukemia cells with high VLA-4 and CD98 expression facilitate cell adhesion to sinusoidal vessels, followed by subsequent activation of integrin signaling that promotes cell self-renewal and proliferation.189 In addition, in a BCR-ABL murine model of CML, the CD44/E-selectin axis was shown to be essential for proper cell engraftment, and positively associated with imatinib resistance.