Analysis of the glycoproteins of murine tumour cell lines with 125I-concanavalin A in two-dimensional electrophoresis gels.

The combination of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and post-electrophoretic staining with 125I-labelled concanavalin A was used to compare the glycoproteins of murine tumour cell lines. Comparison between different cell lines showed that there were about eight common glycoproteins. The rest of the glycoproteins were generally unique to particular cells. Thus the P815 cell could be distinguished from 13 other murine cell lines by its glycoprotein pattern. The specific glycoproteins of each cell line were unaffected by culture in vivo, virus infection or hybridisation. Different clones from the same cell line gave identical patterns. Crude membrane preparations and glycoproteins purified from cell lysates by affinity chromatography on concanavalin/agarose gave the same patterns as whole cells. Thus the glycoproteins of murine tumour cells appear to be a stable characteristic which can provide specific markers for the identification of tumour cell lines.