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Two murine monoclonal antibodies (MAb) CO-029 and GA22-2 are described which reacted specifically with the human gastrointestinal tumor cell lines LS180 and SW1222, respectively. CO-029 specific antigen was found by immunoprecipitation and Western blotting to be a highly expressed protein consisting of a single polypeptide chain of 32kDa. The gastric tumor associated antigen GA22-2 was a 185kDa polypeptide which did not comigrate with the 180 kDa carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neither was it immunologically crossreactive with the latter. Both CO-029 and GA22-2 antigens were shown to be glycosylated by their retention on Sepharose-lectin columns. CO-029 was highly bound by wheat germ agglutinin indicating the accessibility of N-acetylglucosamine or N-acetyl-neuraminic acid residues. GA22-2 showed higher specificity to soybean agglutinin inferring the preferential accessibility of galactose or N-acetylgalactosamine-like residues on its saccharide moiety.

In order to analyze the molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion during development, proteins on the surface of chick embryonic neural cells were compared with proteins released after placing these cells in culture. One of the components released into culture, F1 (molecular weight, Mr 140,000), was derived by proteolytic cleavage of a cell surface precursor with a molecular weight of at least 240,000. Another protein, F2, recovered from culture as a dimer (Mr 1110,000), appeared to be a product of limited proteolytic cleavage of F1. Cells in retinal tissue possessed a surface protein of Mr 150,000 that also appeared to be derived by limited proteolytic cleavage of the cell surface precursor. Antibodies to F2 interacted with determinants on the cell surface protein of Mr 150,000, and specifically prevented homologous and heterologous binding among dissociated retinal and brain cells. In contrast, antibodies to F1 failed to prevent cell-cell adhesion and did not crossreact with F2. These data suggest that the cell surface protein of Mr 150,000 generated by limited proteolysis is involved in adhesion of both retinal and brain cells. Cell-cell binding of both retinal and brain cells varied as a function of developmental age and brain cells acquired their binding properties at an earlier time than retinal cells. Similar results were obtained in experiments on the binding of retinal and brain cells of different ages to nylon fibres coated with antibodies to F2. The results of the molecular and cellular experiments are incorporated in a model for cell adhesion invoking both proteolytic activation and modulation of cell surface ligands.

Infection of normal human melanocyte and nevus cultures with an adenovirus 12-Simian Virus 40 hybrid virus (Ad12-SV40) produced transformed cells that expressed SV40-T antigen. The Ad12-SV40 cells exhibited rapid cell proliferation to high cell densities and efficient growth in soft agar, but none of 15 transformed melanocyte and nevus cultures formed tumors when injected s.c. or under the renal capsule into athymic nude mice. While the Ad12-SV40-transformed cells lost certain properties associated with the melanocytic phenotype, i.e., pigmentation, tyrosinase activity and melanosome content, the expression of melanoma-associated antigens, including nerve growth factor receptor, p97 melano-transferrin, and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, remained stable. The transformed melanocytes acquired the ability to express HLA-DR antigen, which is found on nevus and melanoma cells. Total ganglioside patterns in Ad12-SV40-transformed cells changed to reflect more advanced stages of tumor progression. Transformed melanocytes, like nevus and melanoma cells, showed increased GD3 content and transformed nevus cells increased GD2 which is a feature of malignant melanoma cells. Ad12-SV40-transformed human melanocytes and nevus cells are useful tools for studying tumor progression under experimental conditions.

Genetically altered calmodulin activity in spontaneously derived mutant strains, which were selected for resistance to the toxic effect of a specific inhibitor, the phenothiazine drug fluphenazine, is demonstrated. Partially purified calmodulin preparations from wild-type and fluphenazine-resistant strains of the multicellular alga Volvox carteri, were tested for the ability to activate Ca2+-ATPase of the erythrocyte membranes, and the inhibition of this stimulatory activity by fluphenazine. Unlike the preparation obtained from wild-type cells, mutant calmodulin is shown to be insensitive to fluphenazine inhibition, in one case, and calmodulin from another strain was found to be inactive in vitro, i.e. it did not activate Ca2+-ATPase. The pleiotropic phenotype of the spontaneously derived mutant strains involved aberrant multicellular organization and hormone-independent commitment of the multipotent asexual reproductive cells, gonodia, to sexual development. These results clearly implicate calmodulin in the control of development and morphogenesis in this simple multicellular eukaryote. In addition, intracellular inhibition of calmodulin in wild-type cells is shown to block the morphogenic process of embryo inversion and to arrest motility. The availability of mutant calmodulin will facilitate further investigation of the role of this ubiquitous regulatory protein in the control of development and differentiation in multicellular eukarytes, as well as the fine structure/function relationship with regard to calmodulin modulation of a wide variety of cellular processes.

Antibodies reactive with cell surface carbohydrates were isolated from normal chicken serum and were found to be mitogenic for mouse splenic lymphocytes as assayed by both blast transformation and [3H]thymidine incorporation. The Fab' fragments of these carbohydrate-binding immunoglobulins were just as mitogenic as the divalent native antibody. Moreover, succinylated Fab' fragments, which probably would not form self-associating aggregates, showed similar mitogenic properties. All of these results indicate that, at least for saccharide-specific ligands, multipoint attachment and receptor cross-linkage on the cell to which the ligand is attached may not be a stringent requirement for activation.

An experimental autoimmune multiple sclerosis-like disease (EAMSD) was induced in rabbits by immunizing them with bovine brain gangliosides. Forebrain myelin was isolated and fractionated on a discontinuous sucrose gradient into light myelin (LM, buoyant density less than or equal to 0.625 M), and heavy myelin (HM, buoyant density greater than 0.625 M). No abnormalities in either protein or lipid composition of EAMSD myelin fractions were observed. However, the EAMSD tissue yielded 31% less light and 39% more heavy myelin compared to the control brains. Thus, the HL/LM ratio was two-fold greater in experimental than in control myelin. This pathological pattern is similar to that which has been observed in myelin obtained from the brains of multiple sclerosis patients and from the optic nerves of rabbits with experimentally-induced demyelination.

Affinity chromatography on Sepharose-fetuin columns was used in a single step procedure to isolate the lectins concanavalin A, Favin, phytohemagglutinin, wheat germ agglutinin, and Limulus hemagglutinin. New lectins with unknown binding specificities were also purified by the same procedure from extracts of small California white beans, Idaho red beans, and white pea beans. The purified lectins exhibited different cell surface mapping properties on erythrocytes, lymphocytes, and sperm cells. It was particularly striking that neither 131I-labeled concanavalin nor 125I-labeled wheat germ agglutinin had any effect on the binding of the other to mouse spleen cells. In accord with this observation, gel electrophoretic analysis of radiolabeled lymphocyte receptors for these two lecithins yielded different patterns. These results indicate that highly purified lectins prepared by affinity chromatography on the same adsorbent can possess strikingly different binding specificities for cell surface receptors.

Incorporation of the tetrasialoganglioside GQ1b into membranes of mouse splenocytes rendered these cells effective triggers in an autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction. Whereas GQ1b-incorporated cells increased mitogenic responses of thymocytes by 10 to 13-fold over untreated cultures, the trisialoganglioside GT1b was only partially effective, and the di- and monosialogangliosides tested had no effect. The mixed lymphocyte reaction generated in the autologous system by highly glycosylated gangliosides is abolished by neuraminidase or mile formic acid treatment prior to their insertion into target cell membranes suggesting a role for the extra sialic acid residues in imparting additional antigenic specificity to the modified cells.

A soybean agglutinin was found to agglutinate mouse, rat and human cell lines transformed by viral carcinogens, but not hamster cells transformed by viral or non-viral carcinogens. Normal cells from which the transformed cells were derived were not agglutinated by this agglutinin, but they were rendered agglutinable after short incubation with trypsin or pronase. The transformed hamster cells, on the other hand, became agglutinable only after prolonged treatment with pronase. The agglutination was specifically inhibited by N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, indicating that N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-like saccharides are part of the receptor sites for soybean agglutinin on the surface membrane. Such sites exist in a cryptic form in normal cells; they are exposed in transformed mouse, rat and human cells, but become less accessible in transformed hamster cells. The receptor sites for soybean agglutinin differ from the receptors for two other plant agglutinins (wheat germ agglutinin that interacts with N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-like sites and Concanavalin A that interacts with α-D-glucopyranoside-like sites) which become exposed upon transformation of all lines tested. In normal hamster cells, the receptors for all three agglutinins become exposed after incubation with trypsin, but the exposure of N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-like sites requires the longest enzyme treatment. The results indicate a difference in the location of different carbohydrate-containing sites in the surface membrane. The differences in the exposure of carbohydrate-containing sites in the membrane could not be correlated with the levels of carbohydrate-splitting glycosidases in normal and transformed cells.