α1-Antitrypsin; (α1-AT) produced by various human carcinoma (non-hepatoma) cell lines were analyzed. Five out of eight cell lines secreted detectable amounts of α1-AT into the conditioned media. All were adenocarcinoma cell lines. The tumor cell-derived α1-ATs had higher molecular weights (MW) than the normal plasma form. Most of this difference was an overall reflection of altered N-glycosylation. As judged by binding of lectins, the glycosylation had shifted towards higher levels of triantennary oligosaccharides and higher levels of fucosylation. The conditioned media also contained lower MW α1-AT species, possibly, proteolytically cleaved forms.
