Sialic acid and the social behaviour of cells.

Abstract

Summary1. It is suggested that specific carbohydrate side‐chains of membrane glycoproteins are the sites for cell recognition or adhesion when the terminal sugar, sialic acid, is absent.2. It is suggested that sialic acid plays a ‘protective’ or ‘blocking’ role in cell interactions so that addition of sialic acid to asialo side‐chains converts them to forms inactive for recognition. This principle of ‘blocking’ by sialic acid has been observed in other situations as in covering tumour antigens and in protecting glycoproteins from uptake by the liver. It is here extended to cell‐cell adhesions.3. It is to be expected that specific ‘protective’ actions of sialic acid in membrane‐bound glycoproteins will be difficult to detect. As a charged residue, sialic acid is likely to have a strong influence both on the glycoproteins on which it is borne and on their interactions with each other at the cell surface. Removal of sialic acid by enzymes could therefore perturb the structure of the cell surface in several ways and so obscure the ‘protective’ effects of sialic acid. Sialic acid is therefore suggested to have a structural role also.4. Evidence is assembled in favour of a model in which sialysation of specific adhesive receptors affects the social behaviour of cells. This may be an effect associated with growing cells since the contact properties of mitotic cells (and populations rich in dividing cells) are decreased by the increased sialysation of receptors. One of the factors associated with malignant behaviour could be that adhesive receptors are permanently blocked by sialic acid.5. A schematic representation of some of the points is given in Fig. 4.