Endogenous carbohydrate-binding proteins in oligodendrogliomas. A histochemical study.

Differentiated and anaplastic oligodendrogliomas revealed intracytoplasmic and nuclear presence of endogenous carbohydrate-binding proteins by application of labelled (neo)glycoproteins in histochemical analysis. The histochemical patterns showed differences between the differentiated and anaplastic forms of the same tumor type. Xylose-, lactose- and asialofetuin-specific carbohydrate-binding proteins could be detected in both types of tumors with the same staining intensity. However, maltose-specific carbohydrate-binding proteins were present only in the differentiated form. An inverse intensity of the histochemical reaction was observed with galactose-6-phosphate-, galactose-beta(1.3)-N-acetylglucosamine-N-acetylglucosamine- and mannose-(BSA-biotin) and fucose-(BSA-biotin) respectively, when the differentiated and anaplastic oligodendrogliomas were compared with each other. These differences document changes in the pattern of histochemically detectable carbohydrate-binding proteins, suggesting a role for endogenous carbohydrate-binding proteins in the tumor cell differentiation. These data indicate the potential usefulness of labelled (neo)glycoproteins as a new type of marker for histopathological diagnosis.