Galactosyltransferase Activity in Metastasizing and Nonmetastasizing Rat Mammary Carcinomas and Its Possible Relationship With Tumor Cell Surface Antigen Shedding 1,2

ABSTRACT-In order to study the mechanism of tumor cell sur-face antigen shedding, galactosyltransferase levels were com-pared in 5 spontaneously metastasizing and 3 nonmetastasizing rat mammary tumors. The enzyme activity both with or without exogenous acceptors was higher in the metastasizing group. This difference did not seem to be due to the variation in levels of degrading enzymes such as pyrophosphatase or p-galactosidase found in these tumors. Little difference in the biochemical proper-ties of the enzyme was found between the two groups. Most of the enzyme activity (60-70%) was recovered in the microsomal frac-tion, in which the enzyme was enriched more than fivefold. When the galactosyltransferase was assayed in "purified " plasma membrane fractions, 70 % of the activity was associated with the plasma membrane vesicles, in which the enzyme was enriched by factors of 10-40. The number of galactose acceptor sites o