Cell surface glycoprotein patterns of cell lines derived from human small cell carcinoma of the lung

The expression of major cell surface glycoproteins (sgp) of seven established human pulmonary small cell carcinoma (SCC) cell lines and two autologous non-neoplastic lymphoblastoid and fibroblastic cell lines were studied by the galactose oxidase tritiated sodiumborohydride labelling technique. The general sgp pattern of SCC cell lines was different from that of the autologous non-malignant cell lines and the various other normal and malignant hematopoietic cells, gliomas and melanomas previously studied by the same technique, thus confirming that the sgp pattern seems to represent a molecular "fingerprint" of various human cell types. The SCC cell lines could be subdivided into two major subgroups with respect to expression of characteristic sgps. One group of lines was characterized by having prominent sgp 52000 (52 K) Dalton (D), 50 KD, 40 KD, 34 KD and 10 KD. In the other group the major sgps had apparent molecular weights of 110 KD, 75 KD and 10 KD, respectively. In addition to these common basic "group specific" sgps each SCC line expressed individually distinct sgps.