Correlation between spontaneous metastatic potential, platelet-aggregating activity of cell surface extracts, and cell surface sialylation in 10 metastatic-variant derivatives of a rat renal sarcoma cell line.

Several properties of 10 cell lines derived from the polyoma-induced PW20 Wistar-Furth rat renal sarcoma have been examined, including the ability of the tumor cells to metastasize spontaneously from subcutaneous sites in syngeneic hosts, the platelet-aggregating activity of material extracted by urea from the surface of cultured cells, the sialic acid content of the platelet-aggregating material, and the degree of sialylation of cell surface glycoconjugates in cultured cells. A correlation has been observed among all of these parameters. The results suggest a possible link between the degree of cell surface sialylation of tumor cells, their ability to aggregate platelets, and their ability to metastasize.