Distinctive properties of fucosyl glycopeptides on human teratoma cells.

Fucose-labeled glycopeptides from four human teratoma cell lines of independent origin show similar elution profiles on Sephadex G-50 column chromatography. The fucosyl glycopeptides elute in two major regions: one near the void volume, the other in fractions corresponding to a molecular weight of 2500-3000. These elution profiles are very different from those obtained with the other human cell lines examined which included 3 lymphomas, 2 colon carcinomas, and HeLa. The elution profiles of the human teratomas, however, show remarkable similarities to those obtained with murine embryonal carcinoma cell culture and early mouse embryos. These results suggest that the excluded G-50 fraction may well contain glycopeptides playing a role in mammalian embryogenesis.