Specific detection of glycans on a plasma membrane of living cells with atomic force microscopy.
Among the many alterations of cancer cells is the expression of different surface oligosaccharides. In this work, oligosaccharide expression in living cells (cancer and reference ones) was studied with atomic force microscopy by using lectins as probes. The unbinding force obtained for the same lectin type (concanavalin A or Sambucus nigra) suggested slightly dissimilar structures of binding sites of the same ligand type. For the lectin from Phaseolus vulgaris, a much larger unbinding force indicated a distinct structure of the binding site in cancer cells. The unbinding probability confirmed a higher content of both sialic acid and mannose-containing ligands in cancer and reference cells, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of atomic force microscopy to directly probe the presence of molecules on a living cell surface, together with the quantitative description of their expression.
Lekka
Małgorzata
M
The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Kraków, Poland. malgorzata.lekka@ifj.edu.pl
Laidler
Piotr
P
Labedź
Maria
M
Kulik
Andrzej J
AJ
Lekki
Janusz
J
Zajac
Wojciech
W
Stachura
Zbigniew
Z
D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000032:analysis*; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology
D011134:Polysaccharides