The N-linked
sugar chains of
melanoma cell membrane from five murine
B16 melanoma clones (F1, F10, BL6, W1-4, and C4-1) with different degrees of metastatic abilities after intravenous and intrafootpad
injections were released quantitatively as
oligosaccharides by hydrazinolysis, and their structures were analyzed by serial
lectin column chromatography,
Bio-Gel P-4 column chromatography, and sequential
glycosidase digestion.
Sugar chain structures of each clone have shown to consist of the same elemental
oligosaccharides, but to differ in their percent compositions. More than 84% of the neutral
oligosaccharides were high
mannose-type
sugar chains. Most complex-type
sugar chains were sialylated, of which the major structure was tetraantennary
sugar chain. Highly lung-colonizing F10 cells had 1.4 and 1.7 times more non-repeated tetraantennary
sugar chains than moderately colonizing F1 and C4-1 cells, respectively, and 2.5 times more than poorly colonizing W1-4 cells. BL6 cells, which are also highly lung-colonizing, had 1.5 and 1.9 times more non-repeated tetraantennary
sugar chains than F1 and C4-1 cells, respectively, and 2.8 times more than W1-4 cells. These results suggest that increase of sialylated tetraantennary complex-type
sugar chains without
N-acetyllactosamine repeating units of
B16 melanoma cells might correlate with the higher lung-colonizing ability after
intravenous injection.