S. Maschke et al., MALIGNANT-CELLS HAVE INCREASED LEVELS OF COMMON GLYCOPROTEIN LIGANDS OF THE ENDOGENOUS CEREBELLAR SOLUBLE LECTIN CSL, European journal of cell biology, 62(1), 1993, pp. 163-172
The glycoprotein composition of various transformed cells or malignant
tumors was analyzed and compared to their respective non-malignant co
ntrol cells or tissues of several species, including man, using an end
ogenous carbohydrate-binding protein, the cerebellar soluble lectin CS
L (Zanetta et al., J. Neurochem. 49, 1250-1257 (1987). A large variety
of transformed cells contain a much higher number and larger quantity
of glycoprotein ligands of CSI, than the control cells or normal tiss
ues. The glycoprotein profiles were, in most cases, independent of the
nature of the cell transformation of the degree of differentiation, o
f the tissue and species. Thus, it is suggested that many transformed
cells have, as a common anomaly, the increased synthesis of the specia
l type of glycan recognized by CSL, expressed on the same polypeptide
chains.