A Specific Metabolic Activity on the Surface Membrane in Malignant Cell-Transformation
Abstract
The carbohydrate-binding protein, Concanavalin A (Con A), binds to glucose- or mannose-like sites on the cell-surface membrane. Unless the cells are treated with trypsin, this protein agglutinates malignantly transformed cells, but not normal cells. The transformed cells were agglutinated at 24°C but not at 4°C. Transformed and normal cells treated with trypsin were agglutinated at both 24°C and 4°C with high concentrations of Con A (500 μg/ml), but only at 24°C with low concentrations (5 μg/ml). The same number of Con A molecules were bound to normal and transformed cells at both temperatures. The results indicate that the site for Con A on the surface membrane contains two activities, a component that binds Con A molecules (B) and a component that determines agglutination (A). B is not temperature sensitive and is active in normal and transformed cells, whereas A, which is temperature sensitive, is in an active form only in transformed cells. A can be activated by trypsin, and the increased activity per cell allows agglutination at 4°C with a high, but not with a low, concentration of Con A. Agglutination of transformed cells by wheat-germ agglutinin, which binds to N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-like sites, and by soybean agglutinin, which binds to N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-like sites, was not temperature sensitive. Thus, the temperature-sensitive component A is specific for Con A, and malignant transformation of normal cells, which results in agglutinability by Con A, is associated with the activation of a specific temperature-sensitive activity on the surface membrane.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- November 1971
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.68.11.2748
- Bibcode:
- 1971PNAS...68.2748I