INCREASED SIALYL-LEWIS-A EXPRESSION AND FUCOSYL-TRANSFERASE ACTIVITY WITH ACQUISITION OF A HIGH METASTATIC CAPACITY IN A COLON-CANCER CELL-LINE

A human colon cancer cell line, OCUC-LM1(LM), was established from a l iver metastasis in our laboratory. Intrasplenic injection of LM into n ude mice was repeated three and five times, and the daughter cell line s were designated as LM-H3 and LM-H5 respectively. The level of sialyl Lewis A (SLA) in the supernatant of LM-H3 and LM-H5 was 3 and 4.5 tim es higher than that of LM respectively Flow cytometric analysis of SLA expression showed that the peak channel for LM was 113; for LM-H3, 12 6; and for LM-H5, 146. The mean fluorescence intensity of LM was 102.3 +/- 43.5; for LM-HS, 126.2 +/- 28.4; and for LM-H5, 144.8 +/- 23.4. I n endothelial cell adhesion assays, the percentages of adherent LM-H3 and LM-H5 cells were significantly higher than for LM. The activity of alpha 1-->4 fucosyltransferase was higher in LM-HS and LM-HB than in LM, but there was no difference in alpha 2-->3 sialyltransferase activ ities for type 1 chain among the cell lines. Our results suggest that SLA expression is associated with acquisition of a high capacity for l iver metastasis of colon cancer; increased SLA expression is due mainl y to increased fucosyltransferase activity.