Differential patterns of expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored carcinoembryonic antigen and alkaline phosphatase in various cancer cell lines.

The expression of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI-anchored) carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) on the cell surface of various cancer cell lines and a lung diploid cell line (WI38) was investigated, with exposure of the cell lines to a cell differentiation agent (sodium butyrate) to induce cell differentiation and expression of the two tumor-associated antigens. In three colon (SW1222, SW1116, and HT-29) and stomach (MKN-45) cancer cell lines, all of which are double producers of CEA and ALP, the maximum expression of GPI-anchored CEA occurred with butyrate at a lower concentration than did that of GPI-anchored ALP. GPI-anchored ALP derived from colon (SW1222 and SW1116) and stomach (MKN-45 and MKN-1) cancer cell lines was heat-stable with and without exposure to butyrate, but GPI-anchored ALP derived from lung cancer cell lines (PC-6, PC13, PC-14, WI26VA4, and WI38VA13) showed a variety of heat stabilities, depending on cell line, butyrate exposure, and SV40 transformation.