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Increased sialylation and reduced fucosylation of exfoliated cervical cells are potential markers of carcinogenesis in the cervix

  • Yingji Jin , Seung Cheol Kim , Hyoung Jin Kim , Woong Ju , Yun Hwan Kim and Hong-Jin Kim EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 19, 2016
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 54 Issue 11

Abstract

Background:

The Pap test has been used for over 50 years for primary screening of cervical cancer. There has been no study of glycosylation changes in Pap test samples despite considerable potential of the glycosylation changes as biomarkers for detecting cancerous lesions. In this study, we developed a 96-well platform for enzyme-linked lectin assays (ELLAs) to evaluate glycosylation levels in cervical cells.

Methods:

A total of 117 samples of exfoliated cervical cells (ECCs) from 37 individuals with normal cytology, 20 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1, 19 with CIN 2, 26 with CIN 3 and 15 with cervical cancer were analyzed by ELLAs. The wells of 96-well plates were coated with lysates of the cervical cells, and sialylation and fucosylation levels were compared between the groups.

Results:

Sialylation levels increased and fucosylation levels decreased with increasing grade of cervical dysplasia. ELLAs for sialylation [ELLA-Sambucus nigra (SNAs)] and fucosylation [ELLA-Aleuria aurantia lectin (AAL)] discriminated not only CIN 2 and worse (CIN 2+: CIN 2, CIN 3, and cancer) from normal cytology but also CIN 3 and worse (CIN 3+: CIN3 and cancer) from normal cytology. ELLA-SNAs and ELLA-AALs distinguished cancer from normal cytology with a high true-positive rate (TPR) (ELLA-SNAs: 87%; ELLA-AALs: 87%) and low false-positive rate (FPR) (ELLA-SNAs: 19%; ELLA-AALs: 11%).

Conclusions:

The sialylation and fucosylation levels of ECCs as measured by ELLAs have great potential as biomarkers for primary screening of cervical cancer.

Keywords: cervical cancer; fucosylation; lectin; Pap test; sialylation

Funding source: Ministry of Health and Welfare

Award Identifier / Grant number: HI12C0050

Funding statement: The present study was supported by a grant of the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI12C0050). URL: https://www.htdream.kr/

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted article and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: The present study was supported by a grant of the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI12C0050). URL: https://www.htdream.kr/.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Supplemental Material

The online version of this article (DOI: 10.1515/cclm-2015-1014) offers supplementary material, available to authorized users.

Received: 2015-10-18
Accepted: 2016-3-4
Published Online: 2016-4-19
Published in Print: 2016-11-1

©2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2015-1014
Keywords for this article
cervical cancer; fucosylation; lectin; Pap test; sialylation

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials
  3. CCLM Award for the Most Cited Paper Recently Published
  4. Laboratory economics. Risk or opportunity?
  5. Reviews
  6. Molecular diagnosis and precision medicine in allergy management
  7. The insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS) as a cause of hypoglycaemia: an update on the pathophysiology, biochemical investigations and diagnosis
  8. Opinion Paper
  9. Role of microsatellite instability, immunohistochemistry and mismatch repair germline aberrations in immunosuppressed transplant patients: a phenocopy dilemma in Muir-Torre syndrome
  10. Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
  11. Time and tumor type (primary or metastatic) do not influence the detection of BRAF/NRAS mutations in formalin fixed paraffin embedded samples from melanomas
  12. False low holotranscobalamin levels in a patient with a novel TCN2 mutation
  13. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  14. Quality performance of laboratory testing in pharmacies: a collaborative evaluation
  15. Cost evaluation of clinical laboratory in Taiwan’s National Health System by using activity-based costing
  16. Impact of sample processing on the measurement of circulating microparticles: storage and centrifugation parameters
  17. HbA1c: EQA in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands using fresh whole blood samples with target values assigned with the IFCC reference system
  18. Iohexol clearance in unstable critically ill patients: a tool to assess glomerular filtration rate
  19. Characteristics of Chinese patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and the ability of lupus anticoagulant assays to identify them
  20. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  21. Distribution of soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high sensitive troponin I and high-sensitive troponin T in umbilical cord blood
  22. Hematology and Coagulation
  23. Evaluation of Mindray BC-6800 body fluid mode for automated cerebrospinal fluid cell counting
  24. Cancer Diagnostics
  25. Increased sialylation and reduced fucosylation of exfoliated cervical cells are potential markers of carcinogenesis in the cervix
  26. Cardiovascular Diseases
  27. High incidence of macrotroponin I with a high-sensitivity troponin I assay
  28. Infectious Diseases
  29. Prospective evaluation of biomarkers for prediction of quality of life in community-acquired pneumonia
  30. Letter to the Editor
  31. The use of extra-analytical phase quality indicators by clinical laboratories: the results of an international survey
  32. Quality of reporting of diagnostic test accuracy studies in medical laboratory journals
  33. Impact of under-filled blood collection tubes containing K2EDTA and K3EDTA as anticoagulants on automated complete blood count (CBC) testing
  34. Stability of plasma albumin depends on measurement method
  35. Evaluation of screening method for Bence Jones protein analysis
  36. Reference intervals for the Kryptor second-generation chromogranin A assay
  37. Evaluation of an automated urinary iodine measurement using AU5800 analyzer with AutoLab Iodine reagent
  38. Evaluation of the accuracy of complete blood count for insufficient blood samples
  39. The use of a “gray zone” considering measurement uncertainty in pharmacological tests. The serum growth hormone stimulation test as an example
  40. Keeping Ebola out of the lab: a practical solution on how to analyze Ebola associated blood anomalies
  41. Standardized fixation process is crucial to permit molecular analyses in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded melanoma samples
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