Carbohydrates in oral epithelia and secretions: variation with cellular differentiation.

The oral mucosa has been extensively studied in the past, and has thus become a model for demonstration of dynamic changes in cellular glycosylation and many other cell products such as keratins in relation to epithelial differentiation. The extensive knowledge of the glycosylation pattern in normal cells is instrumental in evaluation of the often occurring aberrant glycosylation of carcinoma cells. The emerging developments in antibodies to the glycosyltransferases and probes for their genes will enable us to gain insight into the regulatory mechanisms leading to the apparently well-controlled glycosylation process in epithelia. The first example of such a correlation has been studied in oral epithelia.