IMMUNOBLOTTING CHARACTERIZATION OF CA-125 IN BIOLOGICAL-FLUIDS - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PREGNANCY AND CANCER CA 125 ORIGIN

The CA 125 present in various biological fluids (serum, cyst, peritone al and amniotic fluids, human milk, seminal plasma, cervical mucus and Wish culture medium), was characterized by gel chromatography and imm unoblotting analysis, The elution profile of CA 125 from different sou rces was closely related. The antigen was eluted primarily in the void volume of a Sephadex G-200 column. Immunoblotting analysis showed tha t the CA 125 epitopes reside on a high molecular weight species of gre ater than 900 kDaltons, and are between approximately 900 and 200 kDal tons. The expression of the immunoreactive bands was characteristic fo r each type of sample was examined. A strong differences was identifie d between CA 125 from pregnancy and that from ovarian cancer. These di fferences suggest that the production and/or metabolism of CA 125 gluc oprotein might be different from tissue to tissue.