Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 144, 644-653, Copyright © 1976 by Rockefeller University Press
Status of blood group carbohydrate chains in ontogenesis and in oncogenesis
K Watanabe and SI Hakomori
Blood group ABH determinants in human erythrocytes are carried by four
kinds of glycolipid carbohydrate chains, differing in their structural
complexity. They are Aa, Ab, Ac, and Ad for A variants, and H1, H2, H3, and
H4 for H variants (Table I and Fig 1). Based on the surface labeling of A
variants and on the reactivity of erythrocytes to antibodies directed
against H3 and against its degradation products, it is concluded that
complex variants of A or H determinants (Ac and Ad/or H3 and H4) are absent
or significantly low in fetal erythrocytes (80- 150 days after gestation)
and in new born erythrocytes, whereas these complex structures are fully
developed in adult erythrocytes. In contrast, A determinants linked to
simpler carbohydrate chains (Aa, Ab variants) are fully developed before
birth and do not show significant change after birth. The precursor of
blood group carbohydrate chains seems to be abundant in fetal or newborn
erythrocytes. This assumption is based on the higher reactivity of fetal or
newborn erythrocytes to an antibody, which is directed against the
precursor N- acetylglucosaminly beta1 leads to 3 galactosyl beta1 leads to
4 glucosylceramide than in adult erythorocytes. Reactions of glycolipids of
gastrointestinal mucosa, with antibodies directed against H3 glycolipid and
its degradation products, were compared to that of gastrointestinal tumors.
The reaction to bela Glc NAc1 leads to 3 beta Gall leads to 4 Glc leads to
ceramide (structure 4), which is the precursor of all blood group
glycolipids, was consistently high in many cases of tumor glycolipid than
that of normal glycolipid. This as well as other evidence supports a
general concept that the process of ontogenesis of a blood group
carbohydrate chain occurs as step-by-step elongation and arborization, and
that blocking of such a development of a carbohydrate chain occurs in the
process of oncogenesis.
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