title: Colorectal cancer metastasis determined by carbohydrate-mediated cell adhesion: role of sialyl-LeX antigens.
abstract: Human colorectal carcinomas with increased metastatic potential and with poor prognosis are characterized by the high content of sialyl-LeX carbohydrate antigens. The levels of these carbohydrate antigens apparently increase during colorectal carcinoma progression from non-metastatic to metastatic tumors. The levels of tumor-associated sialyl-LeX antigens are inversely correlated to the post surgical survival of colon carcinoma patients as revealed by retrospective studies. Cell lines selected for high levels of cell surface sialyl-LeX antigens metastasize to livers when they are injected intrasplenically into nude mice. The highly expressing cells also strongly adhere to activated endothelial cells apparently through E-selectin. We conclude that sialyl-LeX carbohydrate antigen is a unique molecular phenotype that determines colorectal cancer metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Toxicology and Immunochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Irimura
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakamori
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsushita
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taniuchi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Todoroki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Izumi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Hoff
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Cleary
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D016256:Lewis X Antigen / Q000502:physiology*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D016256:Lewis X Antigen