Analysis of Glycolipids in Human Endometrium - using mouse and human monoclonal antibodies -

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Since glycolipids on the cell membrane act as a factor in cell recognition, their counterparts in the endometrium may play an important role in implantation. Because sugar chain of glycolipids have been shown to change after malignant transformation, glycolipids may serve as an important diagnostic marker of endometrial cancer. Therefore, we decided to analyze the composition of these molecules from normal and malignant endometric with the aim of developing a new diagnostic method for detection of endometrial cancers.We found that sulfatide, one of the acidic glycolipids, is present in normal endometrial cells and that its amount in the secretory phase is greater than that in the proliferative phase, suggesting that such glycolipid may be involved in implantation. Furthermore, we found that sulfotransferase activity, which is necessary for sulfatide synthesis, is present in endometrial cancer cells; which may indicate that sex steroid hormones have something to do with the gene expression of this enzyme.We developed two monoclonal antibodies against endometrial cancers. One of them, MSN-1, reacts with the Le^b-related sugar moiety of mouse glycolipid; and the other, HMST-1, reacts with human glycolipid type I sugar chain. We applied MSN-1 to flow cytometry to develop a diagnostic method for endometrial cancer, and found that this monoclonal seldom reacted with normal endometrial cells but was reactive with neoplastic cells in 70% of the endometrial cancer cases examined. Our data indicate that this method is very useful for the diagnosis of endometrial cancers.