Altered glycosylation of surface glycoproteins in tumor cells and its clinical application.

Appearance of large Asn-linked sugar chains in the surface glycoprotein is one of the most widely found phenomena in malignant cells and is called the Warren-Glick phenomenon. Comparative study of the sugar chain structures of the surface glycoproteins of cultured cells and their malignant transformants revealed that the altered glycosylation is induced by enhancement of N-acetyl-glucosaminyltransferase V. The change seems to be highly correlated with the metastatic potential of tumor cells.