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. 2009 Dec 10:9:431.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-9-431.

Synthesis and expression of CDw75 antigen in human colorectal cancer

Clotilde Costa-Nogueira  1 , Susana Villar-Portela, Elisa Cuevas, Emilio Gil-Martín, Almudena Fernández-Briera
Affiliations

Synthesis and expression of CDw75 antigen in human colorectal cancer

Clotilde Costa-Nogueira et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Increased ST6Gal I activity has been associated with the alpha(2,6)sialylation enhancement of membrane glycoconjugates observed in metastatic colorectal carcinomas (CRC). Siaalpha(2,6)Galbeta(1,4)GlcNAc sequence, known as CDw75, is a sialylated carbohydrate determinant generated by the ST6Gal I. This epitope has been reported to be associated with the progression of gastric and colorectal tumours, hence there are only a few conclusive studies to date.

Methods: By radioisotopic techniques we evaluated the ST6Gal I activity in healthy, transitional and tumour tissues from 43 patients with CRC. By immunohistochemistry we assessed the CDw75 expression in 25 colorectal adenomas, 43 tumours, 13 transitional and 28 healthy tissues of CRC patients.

Results: ST6Gal I activity was likewise found to be statistically higher in tumour tissue respect to healthy tissue from CRC patients. CDw75 expression was positive in 20% of colorectal adenomas. Furthermore, 70% of tumour specimens and 8.3% of transitional specimens were positive for CDw75 expression, whereas none of the healthy ones showed the presence of the epitope.

Conclusion: The major contribution of this study is the inclusion of data from transitional tissue and the analysis of CDw75 antigen expression in CRC and in colorectal adenomas, little known so far. ST6Gal I activity and CDw75 antigen expression were increased in CRC. Although their comparison did not reach the statistical significance, a great extent of patients showed both, an enhanced tumour ST6Gal I activity and an increased CDw75 expression in the tumour tissue. So, these two variables may play a role in malignant transformation. The expression of CDw75 in colorectal adenomas suggests that this antigen may be a tumour marker in CRC.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ST6Gal I activity in healthy, transitional and tumour tissues from the patients with CRC analyzed. Data are expressed as μU/mg protein and represent the means ± standard error of the means of the n independent determinations carried out per duplicate. *p < 0.05 between tumour and its relative healthy tissue according to the Wilcoxon's test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of colorectal adenomas and healthy, transitional and tumour CRC specimens which showed positive CDw75 expression in the immunohistochemical study.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Immunohistochemical expression of CDw75. A) Section from colorectal adenomas showing CDw75 expression. B) Section from healthy colon mucosa showing negative CDw75 immunoreactivity. C) Section from CDw75 positive tumour colon mucosa, evidenced by the presence of a brown precipitate. Scale bar = 25 μm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentage of positive and negative CDw75 expression in AJCC stages. n = number of specimens.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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