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Primary (Methylcholanthrene-induced) Fibrosarcomas and Glycoprotein Synthesis¹

Division of Cancer Immunology, Biochemical Research Foundation, Newark, Delaware, and Department of Immunology, Mason Research Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts

Paper-strip electrophoretic studies using tris(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane-ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid-boric acid buffer were carried out on the serum of rats bearing primary methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcomas as well as 1st and 2nd transplant generation autografts and isografts of such tumors. It was found that, though bearing histologically similar tumors, serum of different rats produced characteristic and differentiating electrophoretic patterns. The differentiating component, not detectable immunoelectrophoretically in normal rat serum, was a specific glycoprotein with alpha-2-globulin mobility (-2-GP). Heterogeneity of the serum glycoprotein patterns permitted classification of these neoplasms into Strong secretors, Weak secretors, and Non-secretors. That production of -2-GP was donor-graft associated rather than a nonspecific host response to neoplastic growth was indicated by the stability and heritability of the electrophoretic pattern characterizing each primary tumor in subsequent transplant generations and by the observations that different primary tumors arising in the same general area produced different patterns in the same host. Comparative chemical determinations made on the protein-bound carbohydrate in the serum of blood taken from the tumor-efferent vessels and heart blood of the same tumor-bearing animal revealed not only that the heart blood of rats bearing strong-secreting tumors contained more protein-bound hexose than that of rats bearing weak- or non-secreting tumors but also that there was a significantly greater concentration in tumor-efferent blood compared with heart blood in the same animal when it was bearing a strong-secreting tumor. The indication of serum -2-GP levels as a specific host-response to the biologic activity of particular cell types making up certain neoplasms of connective tissue origin adds another parameter to the differentiation of these histologically similar tumors and raises the question of tumor-host relationship, especially since animals bearing strong-secreting tumors had faster growing tumors and a significantly shorter survival time.

¹ This work was supported in part by Grant T-163 from the American Cancer Society, Inc., and by Grant DRG-514 from the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research. Special mention is made in appreciation for the interest shown and financial support given by the Delaware Division of the American Cancer Society, Inc.

² Present address: Department of Immunology, Mason Research Institute, 18–21 Harvard Street, Worcester, Mass.

Received 5/31/66. Accepted 9/ 1/66.