Lymph Node Metastasis-Related Carbohydrate Epitopes of Gastric Cancer with Submucosal Invasion

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the lymph node metastasis-related carbohydrate epitopes of cancer cells in primary lesions of gastric cancer with submucosal invasion (sm gastric cancer). A total of 118 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded surgical specimens were studied. Carbohydrate epitopes were detected histochemically using 17 kinds of biotin-labeled lectins and three kinds of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (HB-T1), Tn (HB-Tn1), and sialyl Tn antigens (HB-STn1). The node-positive group showed significantly lower reactivities with Ricinus communis I (RCA-I), Lotus tetragonolobus (Lotus), Triticum vulgaris (WGA), and Concanavalia ensiformis (ConA), and higher reactivities with HB-STn1. When sm gastric cancer was classified into differentiated and undifferentiated types, lower reactivities with RCA-I and ConA were observed in the differentiated type cancers, whereas lower reactivities with Lotus, WGA, and higher reactivity with HB-STn1 were observed in the undifferentiated type cancers. Nodal status was able to be predicted with high precision by a combination of these carbohydrates and histological subtypes. Since neuraminidase treatment rarely changed the reactivity of cancer cells with these lectins, we conclude that the loss of certain kinds of carbohydrates that are restricted by histological subtypes is related to lymph node metastasis in sm gastric cancer.

Stable expression of sialyl-Tn antigen in T47-D cells induces a decrease of cell adhesion and an increase of cell migration

“…STn expression is broadly reported to be correlated with invasiveness of many epithelial cancers [13][14][15][16], including breast cancers [18,35]. However, it has been also reported that STn reactivity of distant metastases is lower than in their respective primary ovarian tumors [36].…”

“…Correlation between STn expression and lymph node involvement or distant metastasis, is usually observed in gastric [13][14][15], colorectal [16] and breast cancers [17,18]. It has been also reported that STn expression is enhanced in the invasive front of ovarian tumors compared to deeper location in the tumor mass [19].…”

Sialyl-Tn in Cancer: (How) Did We Miss the Target?

“…In gastric cancers, numerous studies reported a positive association of STn expression (in serum or primary tumors) with lymph node metastasis [25,73,75,88,89,93], peritoneal metastasis [25,73,77,88] and liver metastasis [73,88] with few contradicting reports [65]. Logically, many authors also reported a correlation between STn expression and decreased survival [26,65,72,75,88,94].…”

Digital image analysis of skin neoplasms evaluated by lectin histochemistry: potential marker to biochemical alterations and tumour differential diagnosis

“…This observation indicates that the distribution and expression of glyconjugates in the surface were altered (40) . The Con A, LTA and PNA lectins were useful and distinguished among benign and malignant epidermal neoplasms.…”

“…In neoplasic cells the increase on the content and/or expression of surface carbohydrates have been documented using lectin histochemistry (14,40) . Lectins are sensible, stable and easy-touse tools to differentiate transformed and non-transformed cells (4,9,24,37) .…”