Development of novel real-time PCR methodology for quantification of COL11A1 mRNA variants and evaluation in breast cancer tissue specimens

Collagen XI is a key structural component of the extracellular matrix and consists of three alpha chains. One of these chains, the α1 (XI), is encoded by the COL11A1 gene and is transcribed to four different variants at least (A, B, C and E) that differ in the propensity to N-terminal domain proteolysis and potentially in the way the extracellular matrix is arranged.