Roles of gangliosides in the surface properties of normal and malignant cells.
Gangliosides are ubiquitous plasma membrane components whose structural characteristics make it possible to establish multiple interactions with the pericellular microenvironment. Several receptorial activities of gangliosides have already been recognized and the possible involvement of gangliosides in growth control, adhesion, differentiation, and immunologic recognition is at present under study. The study of the role of gangliosides in cell growth control has been approached in our laboratory by investigating whether the ganglioside changes found in SV40-transformed Balb/c3T3 cells (SV3T3 cells) revert to a normal pattern in a variant of SV3T3 cells with growth properties similar to those of normal parental cells, the concanavalin A-selected SV3T3 revertant cells. These latter cells showed the same reduction of the more complex gangliosides as found in SV3T3 cells, while their amount of II3NeuAC-LacCer (GM3) was greatly increased compared to that found in either normal or transformed 3T3 cells. In order to study the role of gangliosides in the adhesion process, we analyzed the ganglioside structure of the so-called substrate-attached material, a cell surface structure involved in the adhesion of cells to substrate, from cultures of Balb/c3T3, SV3T3, and concanavalin A-selected SV3T3 revertant cells and from cultures of a system of transformed cells with different metastatic potential: the nonmetastatic B77-3T3 and the highly metastatic AA6 cells. Compared to normal cells, all the transformed cells contained smaller quantities of gangliosides in their substrate-attached material.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002455:Cell Division; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000378:metabolism*; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002614:Chelating Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D004533:Egtazic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000378:metabolism; D013539:Simian virus 40; D013499:Surface Properties
D002614:Chelating Agents; D005732:Gangliosides; D010743:Phospholipids; D004533:Egtazic Acid; D002784:Cholesterol