Assessment of serum L-fucose in brain tumor cases.
BACKGROUND
Glycosylation of altered tumor cell in relation to cellular heterogeneity in human intracranial tumors remains relatively unexposed. Serum protein-bound carbohydrate, L-Fucose is reported to be overexpressed during tumor progression by many investigators. Therefore, there is a need to determine the diagnostic, prognostic, functional significance of glycoprotein elevations in various cases of tumors.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical utility of serum L-fucose in patients with brain tumor.


METHODS
Serum glyco-conjugate levels were estimated in 99 patients with brain tumors. Estimation of L-fucose was carried out colorimetrically by the method of Winzler using cysteine hydrochloride.


RESULTS
There was a significant increase in L-fucose level in most of the patients. In the posttreatment cases, the L-fucose levels were apparently low compared to preoperative values.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that the rise in serum L-fucose may be used as a general marker for brain tumors in addition to other markers.
Manjula
S
S
Department of Biochemistry, Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore, India.
Monteiro
Flama
F
Rao Aroor
Annaya
A
Rao
Suryanarayan
S
Annaswamy
Raja
R
Rao
Anjali
A