Quantitative determination of N-glycolylneuraminic acid expression in human cancerous tissues and avian lymphoma cell lines as a tumor-associated sialic acid by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
N-Glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc) is distributed in most animals except humans and chickens. However, human and chicken cancerous tissues often synthesize this heterophilic sialic acid as a tumor-associated Hanganutziu-Deicher antigen [M. Naiki and H. Higashi, Adv. Exp. Med. Biol., 152: 445-456, 1982; H. Higashi et al., Cancer Res., 45: 3796-3802, 1985]. In this paper, NeuGc in human cancerous tissues and chicken Marek's disease lymphoma cell lines was determined quantitatively with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis using mass fragmentography. The detectable limit of NeuGc was 40 pg (0.12 pmol) in each injection using 5 ng of trideuteriomethyl ester trideuteriomethyl glycoside of the sialic acid as an internal standard sample when a pair of ions at m/e 386 and 389 was chosen for ion monitoring. NeuGc was detected in ganglioside-rich fractions of various human cancerous tissues from 5 of 8 patients examined but was not detected in glycosphingolipids of normal human tissues. The contents of NeuGc in these cancerous tissues ranged from 0.02 to 0.5% of the total sialic acid content. NeuGc was also detected in freeze-dried samples of 5 different cell lines from chicken Marek's disease lymphomas but was not detected in a cell line from chicken lymphoid leukosis lymphoma and normal chicken skeletal muscle tissue. The contents of NeuGc in the positive cell lines ranged from 0.03 to 0.11% of the total sialic acid content. These results indicate that NeuGc can be synthesized in both humans and chickens in some cancers.
Kawai
T
T
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Kato
A
A
Higashi
H
H
Kato
S
S
Naiki
M
M
D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002460:Cell Line; D002645:Chickens; D002845:Chromatography; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000378:metabolism; D008380:Marek Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D019158:N-Acetylneuraminic Acid; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D009438:Neuraminic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D012794:Sialic Acids / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009438:Neuraminic Acids; D012794:Sialic Acids; C032592:N-glycolylneuraminic acid; D019158:N-Acetylneuraminic Acid