Roles of Fucosylation in Tumor Immunology

Abstract

The explosive progress of glycobiology in the past few decades has revealed that fucose is indispensable in various organisms and is involved in many biological events. Many researchers have spent a lot of time in order to unveil the mysterious functions of fucosylation. However, the findings which have ever been clarified are not sufficient to explain all fucosylation-related biological events. In the field of oncology, although several fucosylated molecules have been reported to be increased in cancer and have been used as cancer biomarkers, it remains unknown how dynamic changes of fucosylation are associated with cancer biology. Recently, we found that fucosylation is involved in NK cell-mediated tumor immune surveillance through regulation of the susceptibility to tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), which is an apoptosis-inducing molecule. In this review, we describe the relationship between cancer biology and fucosylation, according to our recent findings. © 2010, FCCA(Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age). All rights reserved.