title: The use of con A Sepharose as an affinity adsorbent in a simple assay of serum sialyl and fucosyltransferase and its application in tumour diagnosis.
abstract: A considerably simplified assay for recording sialyl- and fucosyltransferase in human serum is presented. Serum samples incubated with labeled nucleotide-sugar and glycosylated endogenous acceptor molecules were adsorbed to Con A Sepharose and quantitated by scintillation counting. The results correlated with those of a much more time consuming acid precipition method, and displayed a higher diagnostic sensitivity due to the improved specificity of the method and the combined recording of the two activities. A correlation between serum sialyl- and fucosyltransferase activities as well as quantitative agreement between the amount of incorporated sialic acid and fucose indicated that rhe endogenous acceptor molecules were rate-limiting for transfer and may themselves have diagnostic potential.
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D004796:Clinical Enzyme Tests; D005647:Fucosyltransferases / Q000097:blood*; D006602:Hexosyltransferases / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011134:Polysaccharides; D012685:Sepharose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D012799:Sialyltransferases / Q000097:blood*; D014166:Transferases / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides; C028326:concanavalin A-sepharose; D012685:Sepharose; D014166:Transferases; D005647:Fucosyltransferases; D006602:Hexosyltransferases; D012799:Sialyltransferases