Controversially, an immunohistochemical evaluation of a cohort of 127 patients with

primary breast cancer of various stages and grades has demonstrated, that sLex expression was not correlated with prognosis and survival [143]. Studies conducted on primary ovarian carcinomas and metastatic lesions, demonstrated that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Ley and sLex are widely expressed in both, but their expression did not seem to correlate with long- or short-term survival [101,102]. The characteristic changes in total serum N- PF-06463922 cost glycans from patients with advanced ovarian cancer of different type, were examined by HPLC, weak anion exchange HPLC and MS [144]. These changes included increases in levels of core fucosylated, agalactosyl biantennary glycans, presented on IgG heavy chains, and in levels of sLex, linked to acute-phase

proteins, such as haptoglobin, α1-acid glycoprotein, and α1-antichymotrypsin. The mechanisms defining sLex and sLea malignancy are more explained than in other TAC. SLex Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and sLea are known ligands for E-selectin [99,100] and are known to facilitate cancer cell metastasis, mediating their extravasations from blood to peripheral tissues via E-selectin, expressed on vascular endothelium [145,146,147,148,149,150]. Some of these investigations were conducted on the breast cancer model and were supported by clinicopathological data [131,146]. Thus, both sLex Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and soluble E-selectin were significantly elevated in the serum of breast Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cancer patients with advanced and recurrent disease [151]. Both P- and E-selectin expression was significantly elevated on endothelial cells of breast cancer patients [152]. The recent study confirmed E-selectin- driven mechanism of sLex action in carcinogenesis [153]. Importantly, the authors Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical demonstrated that glycosylation profiles differ between estrogen receptor (ER)-positive

and ER-negative breast cancers with higher incidence of sLex in ER-negative breast tumors due to significantly elevated expression of corresponding glyco-genes. SLex expression had no influence on the survival of patients regardless of their ER-positive or ER-negative status. However, high expression of sLex in ER-positive tumors correlated with bone metastasis – the expression site of E-selectin, the receptor for sLex. The authors suggest Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II that selectins may promote metastasis in breast cancer through protein-associated sLex and heparansulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans, as their expression was similarly increased in ER-negative tumors and they may engage with selectins (L/P-selectin) via various microdomains [154]. Notably, selectin affinity depends strongly on sLex microenvironment: for example, E-selectin weakly binds to sLex-containing glycolipids [155], but has a strong affinity for O-glycan associated sLex, expressed by neutrophils [156].