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. 2014 Mar 4;7(2):213–220. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2014.02.006

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Molecular binding specificity experiment with the inhibitory sugar N-acetyl glucosamine. Biopsy specimens, tumor and normal, were derived from the resection specimen of a single patient and incubated with inhibited (within the oval) and uninhibited AF350-WGA conjugate. A sample of the tumor was not incubated with any WGA and kept as a control. The specimens were imaged under white light (A) and fluorescence (B & C). Fig 6B is an overlay image taken with the scientific camera whereas Fig 6C is an image taken with the digital camera. Pre-incubation of AF350-WGA with the inhibitory sugar resulted in a 3 fold decrease in fluorescence of the cancerous tissue; however, this fluorescence was still greater than fluorescence from normal tissue incubated with uninhibited AF350-WGA. No incubation with WGA resulted in very little fluorescence for the cancerous control sample. These results demonstrate that the lectin binding is indeed molecularly specific to sialic acid residues that are overexpressed on cancerous tissue. The tumor and normal specimens, intensity scale and magnification are indicated in the figure.