Based upon the reasoning that protein-carbohydrate recognition is involved in diverse intercellular activities including growth control and cell motility 14 probes have been employed to characterize epitope presence in sections of 80 cases with operated lung carcinomas, 20 patients with mesothelioma, and 20 cases with non-malignant lung diseases. As parts of the innate immune system with supposed relevance for host defense the mannan-binding lectin (MBL) and serum amyloid P component (SAP) were employed. The naturally occurring immunoglobulin G fractions with selectivity for alphaa-galactosides (alpha+) and beta-galactosides (beta+) and their subfractions with enhanced target selectivity (alpha+beta-,alpha-beta+) allowed the monitoring of expression of reactive sites for these autoantibodies as a step to elucidate potential anti-tumor activity. Due to the diversity of cellular galactoside-containing glycoconjugates two galectins and a plant lectin were included. As a measure of receptor activities for carbohydrates, neoglycoconjugates with alpha-galactose, the B-disaccharide, the Forssman-disaccharide, and alpha-glucose as histochemically crucial ligand part were tested in addition to an antibody against heparin-binding lectin. Quantitative image analysis revealed significant differences between cases with small cell and non-small cell lung cancer for the plant lectin and one galectin, cases with non-tumorous lung disease and lung carcinoma for serum amyloid P component and the beta-galactoside-selective autoantibody fraction. Prognostic relevance was observed for the presence of glucose-specific sites in small cell lung cancer and meso-thelioma cases, and of galectin- and alpha-galactoside-selective immunoglobulin G fraction-binding sites in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

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