Clinically applicable markers for
tumor progression may be uncovered by selective analysis of biochemical parameters, supposedly participating in this complex process. Owing to the importance of specific
protein-
carbohydrate interactions in diverse biological processes, the pattern of the receptor part in this glycobiochemical recognition system, the
sugar receptors (
lectins), conceivably reflects
biological properties of
tumor cells in glycobiochemical terms. Therefore, we established and characterized xenografts from surgically removed specimens of a human primary
colon adenocarcinoma and its metastatic lesions to liver of the same patient and of a histomorphologically similar primary
colon adenocarcinoma of another patient in nude mice.
Xenotransplantation and subsequent glycobiochemical analysis of material from early passages with a standardized procedure had been preferred to cell culture in monolayer on account of maintenance of a higher degree of organized histotypic assembly. Despite histomorphological similarities, the
sugar receptor profile revealed significant differences in
tumor-
tumor and
tumor-
metastasis comparison, especially for alpha- and
beta-galactoside-
binding proteins.
Tumor-
metastasis differences were substantiated by a second successfully xenotransplanted pair of specimens. Comprehensive expansion of these initial data may eventually lead to desirable functional correlations with the different
biological properties of histomorphologically similar primary
colon adenocarcinomas and of the metastatic phenotype and to a rational development of therapeutic modalities to restrict
tumor growth and spread.