Abstract
THE cell surface may be involved in the metastatic process of cancer cells1. To determine whether membrane properties influence or reflect the metastasising capacity, it is essential to have metastasising and non-metastasising variants of the same tumour. Lectins which bind specifically to surface carbohydrates2 have been used successfully as selective agents to obtain cells with membrane carbohydrate alterations3–5. We have selected variants of melanoma cells for surface differences in using toxic concentrations of lectins in the hope that such variants would exhibit different metastasising capacities. We report here the isolation of variants from metastasising melanoma cells resistant to toxic concentrations of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). These variants show reduced to a loss of metastasising capacity and altered surface properties.
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TAO, TW., BURGER, M. Non-metastasising variants selected from metastasising melanoma cells. Nature 270, 437–438 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/270437a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/270437a0
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