Study and evaluation on tumor cell agglutinating activity of human sera

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-437X.2001.02.003

Abstract：Objective：To probe into the effect of human sera on tumor cell aggregation and evaluate tumor cell agglutinating activity of human sera.Methods：The aggregation of human nasopharyngeal carcinom a cells(CNE-2L2)with high metastatic potential induced by human sera in vitro and the experimental lung metastasis of B16 murine melanoma were quant ified.Human sera were treated by hot,pronase,salt out or periodate oxidation,etc .Results：L2 cell aggregatin was introduced and enhanced b y the sera of normal persons, benign tumor or malignant tumor patients,and the tumor cell aggregating activity of malignant tumor patients’ sera was the highe st.The diagnostic sensity to malignant tumor was 90.6%,the specificity was 92.1% and the accuracy was 91.3%.The experimental metastasis of B16 cells and t umor a ggregation were inhibited by laminin-glycopeptides.The activity of the sera tr eated by pronase-digestion and periodateoxidation was great reduced,however,the activity of both normal and benign sera was more stable to heat but the activit y of malignant sera was more sensitive. Conclusion: The study indicates that there are tumor cell aggreg ating factors in human sera,and it suggests that the factors in normal and benig n sera maybe mainly be glycoproteins,but the ones of malignant sera probably are glycoconjugates and lectins.These factors maybe enhance tumor cell embolization and metastasis by inducing tumor cell aggregation.Moreover it suggests that tum or cell agglutinating activity of human positively relate with tumor metastasis and may be a potential maker of malignant tumor and a valuable index in diagnosi s and prognosis of malignant tumor.