Tumorigenicity and the expression of cell-surface carbohydrates.

Abstract

TUMOUR cell populations are heterogeneous with respect to various biological properties1–3. Immunological properties that influence tumour–host relationships and metastatic properties of tumours may also differ between subpopulations of tumour cells4,5. In addition, conditions of growth may favour the emergence of subpopulations, and the immunogenic modification of susceptible subpopulations. We have reported that highly immunogenic tumour cells can be isolated from the parental tumour by concanavalin A (con A)–affinity chromatography6,7, and the relative proportion of different subpopulations varied with different conditions of growth. We now report that the tumorigenicity of murine adenocarcinoma varies as a function of the tumour sub-populations present, as defined by their expression of cell-surface carbohydrates.