Characterization of tumour cell aggregation promoting factor from rat ascites hepatoma cells: Separation of two factors with different antigenic property.

The previously described glycoprotein that promotes tumour cell aggregation, derived from rat ascites hepatoma cells and capable of partial purification by chromatography, was found to be a mixture of 2 factors with different antigenic property. One was not absorbed by immunoadsorbent chromatography with anti-rat serum antibody and the other was. The action of the unabsorbed factor was clearly more potent than that of the absorbed factor. Both the factors were found in the serum of tumour bearing rats and the action of the unabsorbed factor was also more potent than that of the absorbed factor; its amount increased with time after i.p. inoculation of the cells. The serum of healthy rats contained the absorbed factor but not the unabsorbed factor. It was thus assumed that the unabsorbed factor was associated with the hepatoma cell surface itself and released into the serum, while the absorbed factor was associated with serum protein coating the cell.