CARBOHYDRATE COMPOSITIONS OF NORMAL, SPONTANEOUSLY TRANSFORMED, AND VIRALLY TRANSFORMED-CELLS DERIVED FROM BALB-C MICE

Abstract

Carbohydrate compositions of chloroform:methanol-soluble and -insoluble complex polysaccharides were studied in cell lines derived from BALB/c mice. The cells used in these studies included normal cells, spontaneous and viral transformants that caused tumors that regressed, and spontaneous and viral transformants that caused progressively growing tumors that killed immunocompetent BALB/c mice. The carbohydrates, were determined by GLC. Some of the transformed cell lines compared with normal cells had altered carbohydrate compositions, including decreased sialic acid levels and decreased N-acetylgalactosamine in chloroform:methanol-soluble material. Significant decreases in total carbohydrates of chloroform:methanol-insoluble material were also observed in some of the transformed cells. These changes alone did not predict cancer. Transformed cell lines that caused progressively growing tumors tended to have fewer alterations in carbohydrates of complex polysaccharides than lines causing tumors that regressed.