In a previous study we showed that tumorigenic and invasive human uroepithelial cell lines are characterized by the presence of sialosyl le' ($Lee') ganglioside. Our data suggested that expression of this glycolipid correlated with acquisition of the malignant phenotype by human urothelial cells. To evaluate the postulated adhesion function of $Lea antigen, we studied the adherence of 6 human urothelial cell lines with different expressions of this carbohydrate structure to E-selectinexpressing CHO cells. The only cell line that bound specifically to E-selectin was Hu 1703He. which expressed the highest level of sl& antigen. The involvement of carbohydrat+E-selectin interaction in the adhesion of Hu 1703He cells was indicated by the following facts: (i) anti-E-selectin monoclonal antibody (MAb) completely abolished binding to E-selectin-expressing CHO cells; (ii) removal of sialic acid from Hu 1703He cells highly decreased the adhesion. Adhesion correlated with the presence of several sLea-carrying glycoproteins, which was shown by immunoblotting of Hu 1703He cell lysate with anti-sle. MAb
19-9. The binding of antibody was abolished when cell lysate was treated with 0-sialoglycoprotein endopeptidase. suggesting that sLea is present on 0-linked oligosaccharides. However, incubation of Hu I703He cells with 0-sialogtycoprotease had no effect on adhesion to E-selectin or on binding of 19-9 MAb to the cell surface. Our data suggest that (I) protein-bound sLea oligosaccharides represent only a minor portion of whole s h e ' anti en roduced by uroepithelial cells; (ii) effective binding to E-sefecti occurs when s h . oligosaccharide present on cellsurface glycorphingolipids is expressed in high densitysince the cell lines with moderate expression of sle' ganglioside did not bind to E-selectin-tramfected CHO cells. 0 1996 Wiley-Lks, lnc. whom correspondence and reprint requests should be sent, at Department of Immunochemistry, Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Czerska 12, 53-114 Wroclaw. Poland. Fax: 48-71-67 91 11. Abbmiotions: sLea, sialosyl Lea, sLex, sialosyl Lex, PBS, phos hate buffered saline: TBS, tris-buffered saline; PMSF, phenylmethyfsulfo: nyl fluoride: SDS-PAGE, sodium dodecyl olyacrylamide el electrophoresis; BSA, bovine serum albumin; J A b , monoclonaf antibody; FITC, fluorescein-isothiocyanate KLOPOCKI ETAL.