Immunoreactivity of Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen in human neoplasms: The importance of carrier-specific glycotope expression on MUC1 S.E. Baldus1, F.-G. Hanisch2, E. Monaca2, U.R. Karsten3, T.K. Zirbes1, J. Thiele1 and H.P. Dienes1 1Institute of Pathology and 2Institute of Biochemistry,
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany and Offprint requests to: Dr. Stephan E. Baldus, Institute of Pathology, University of Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 9, 50924 Cologne, Germany. FAX: 0049-221-478-6360. e-mail: s-e.baldus@uni-koeln.de
Summary. On the
basis of their known fine specificities we evaluated the immunohistochemical
marker qualities of two monoclonal antibodies (mabs) defining
the tumor-associated TF disaccharide Galß1-3GalNAc. This
antigen is expressed in certain tumors in correlation with prognosis
and metastasis. The reactivity of one of these mabs (A78-G/A7)
depends on clustered TF di-saccharides (glycosylation at vicinal
Ser/Thr positions) while the other - mab BW835 - has been characterized
to bind specifically to TF disaccharide linked to a motif within
the MUC1 repeat. Therefore, mab BW835 represents an interesting
tool for the identification of tumor-associated glycoforms of
MUC1, which are involved in tumor progression and metastasis,
but also in the recognition of tumor cells by cytotoxic T cells. Key words: Thomsen-Friedenreich
(TF) antigen, Lectin(s), Monoclonal antibody (mab), Immuno-histology,
Tumor-associated antigen(s) |