PMID: 1694115

 

    Legend: Sugar

Title : Unique structure of glycopeptide from alpha-fetoprotein produced in human hepatoma cell line, as determined by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Abstract :

1. Determination of alpha-fetoprotein is used in diagnosis of tumors and neural tube defects
2. A good reliable source of alpha-fetoprotein would be an obvious advantage to the preparation of diagnostic reagents and their standardization
3. We have recently developed a method for the production of alpha-fetoprotein from a human hepatoma cell line
4. This method, which is suitable for scaling up, allowed us to produce 40 g of alpha-fetoprotein from culture supernatant liquid through a simple purification procedure
5. We have previously shown this protein to be identical to alpha-fetoprotein produced from other sources
6. However, because the presence of different glycoforms has been reported in alpha-fetoprotein preparations, both from human sources and from other species, it was important to establish the type and extent of glycosylation of alpha-fetoprotein prepared by our method
7. By using 1H-NMR spectroscopy we were able to establish that our product contains a single N-linked biantennary, fully sialylated complex-type oligosaccharide , typical of human hepatomas