Effect of inhibitors of glycosylation and carbohydrate processing on invasion of malignant mouse MO4 cells in organ culture.

Inhibitors of glycosylation and carbohydrate processing were used to investigate the role of carbohydrates exposed at the cell surface in invasion. Malignant mouse MO4 cells were confronted with embryonic chick heart in organ culture, an assay shown to be relevant for a number of aspects of invasion in vivo. Tunicamycin (1.0 microgram/ml), 2-deoxy-D-glucose (100 mM), beta-OH-norvaline (1.0 mM), and Monensin (0.1 microgram/ml) reversibly inhibited the invasion of MO4 cells. At these concentrations the drugs also inhibited the growth of MO4 cells. 1-Deoxynojirimycin (10mM), swainsonine (0.4 microgram/ml), and Marcellomycin (0.1 microgram/ml) permitted invasion. Marcellomycin also reversibly inhibited the growth of MO4 cells. These results show that drugs known to interfere with the glycosylation or processing of carbohydrate chains of glycoproteins in different ways have different effects on the invasion of MO4 cells in vitro.