Effect of inhibitors of glycosylation and carbohydrate processing on invasion of malignant mouse MO₄ cells in organ culturef

Inhibitors of glycosylation and carbohydrate processing were used to investigate the role of carbohydrates exposed at the cell surface in invasion. Malignant mouse MO₄ cells were confronted with embryonic chick heart in organ culture, an assay shown to be relevant for a number of aspects of invasion in vivo. Tunicamycin (1·0μg/ml), 2-deoxy-d-glucose (100m m), β-OH-norvaline (1·0 mm), and Monensin (0·1μg/ml) reversibly inhibited the invasion of MO₄ cells. At these concentrations the drugs also inhibited the growth of MO₄ cells. 1-Deoxynojirimycin (10m m), swainsonine (0·4μg/ml), and Marcellomycin (0·1 μg/ml) permitted invasion. Marcellomycin also reversibly inhibited the growth of MO₄ cells. These results show that drugs known to interfere with the glycosylation or processing of carbohydrate chains of glycoproteins in different ways have different effects on the invasion of MO₄ cells in vitro.