Study of effect of a carbohydrate chain gene on the characteristics of ovarian cancer cells

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In this study, we investigated how a carbohydrate chain gene affects the cell characteristics of ovarian cancer and its prognosis. That is, how the properties of the cancer cells were affected by the change In carbohydrate chains of the cells induced by introduction of the gene of fucosyltransferase that is an enzyme modifying non-reducing end of carbohydrate chains of cell membrane was examined. The role of sugar chains at that time was also analyzed. It is known that H gene is participating not only in exhibiting ABO blood types but also in functioning such as cell adhesion. Hence, clarification of biochemical changes in carbohydrate chains of cell membrane induced by introduction of H gene that is engaged in synthesis of carbohydrate chains was attempted, and the following results were obtained.Results1. Cells to which human H gene was introduced were smaller and showed denser cell-to-cell adhesion compared with the control cells.2. Cellular sialic acid content in the gene-introduced cells was low, indicating antagonistic activity between fucosylation and *lation.3. Since lacto-series type I carbohydrate chains were detected in only the gene-introduced cells, fucosylation seemed to be induced by the introduced gene.4. Susceptibility to 5-Fu was examined. Owing to introduction of fucosyltransferase, the membrane permeability to hydrophobic molecules rose, and the susceptibility of the cells to anticancer drugs increased.These results suggested that modification of surface carbohydrate chains of ovarian cancer cells may be applied to the treatment of ovarian cancer for improvement of the prognosis.