Lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 is a major SSEA-1-carrier protein in mouse neural stem cells.

Stage-specific embryonic antigen-1 (SSEA-1) is a well-known carbohydrate antigenic epitope of undifferentiated cells, including neural stem cells (NSCs). However, the exact nature of the carrier proteins has not been fully characterized. Using proteomics analyses, we herein report that a lysosomal protein, LAMP-1, is a major carrier protein of SSEA-1 in NSCs, despite the common belief that SSEA-1 is mainly expressed on the cell surface and constitutes a component of the extracellular matrix. Furthermore, we found that SSEA-1 on LAMP-1 is completely ablated in differentiated cells derived from NSCs. Our finding raises the possibility that the expression of SSEA-1-positive LAMP-1 is associated with the "stemness" of NSCs.