Cellular glycoproteins correlating with pulmonary-colonizing potential in B16 melanoma

Sublines of B16 melanoma with different pulmonary colonizing potential were examined for the relationship between cellular glycoproteins and the pulmonary colonizing potential using sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and lectin-binding assay in nitrocellulose sheets after Western blotting. There were glycoproteins corresponding to 33,000 and 32,000, whose carbohydrate components, N-acetylgalactosamine and fucose, were positively correlated with the pulmonary colonizing potential. The protein amount of these glycoproteins was very small and showed no correlations. As regards the cell morphology and growth characteristics, there was no correlation between these parameters and the pulmonary colonizing potential.