title: Gangliosides with O-acetylated sialic acids in tumors of neuroectodermal origin.
abstract: Gangliosides, carrying an O-acetylated sialic acid in their carbohydrate moiety, are often found in growing and developing tissues, especially of neuro-ectodermal origin. The most prominent one is 9-O-Ac-GD3, which is considered as an oncofetal marker in animal and human tumors like neuronal tumors, melanoma, basalioma or breast cancer, as well as in psoriatic lesions. Also other gangliosides like GD2 or GT3 were found to be O-acetylated in their terminal sialic acid. In this review we are summarising the occurrence of such gangliosides in normal and transformed tissues and delineate a more general theory that O-acetylated sialic acids in gangliosides are a universal marker for growing cells and tissues.
authors.affiliation: Biochemisches Institut, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany. gkohla@biochem.uni-kiel.de
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kohla
authors.forename: Eggert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stockfleth
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schauer
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D000818:Animals; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019158:N-Acetylneuraminic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D017599:Neuroectodermal Tumors / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; D019158:N-Acetylneuraminic Acid