ganglioside may influence growth and cell - to - cell interactions may be of importance in the development of malignancy . in the present study , we used a transplantable murine hepatoma as the experimental model , and treated the animals with 5-fluorouracil ( 5-fu ) as the active therapeutic drug to determine the membrane glycolipids content variety . kunming mice ( normal mice ) were obtained from the animal center at fu - dan university shanghai medical college . mice containing the ascites - form transplantable hepatoma were obtained from the cancer institute of jiangsu province . the ascites was drawn from the transplantable hepatoma mice by a sterilized injector and placed into bacteria - free 0.9% nacl for dilution ( 1/3 , v / v ) . subsequently , the normal mice were inoculated with 0.2 ml of diluted cells under the skin in the foreleg and armpit regions . the tumors were allowed to grow for 13 days . usually , solid tumors weighing 12 g were found afterwards . the animals were injected with 5-fu ( 0.2 mg/0.2 ml / day ) i.p . at 48 h after tumor cell transplant . in the control group the animals were injected with a sterilized solution of 0.2 ml of 0.9% nacl instead of 5-fu . a third group of animals , raised without hepatoma transplant or any other form of treatment , was used as the normal group . after the administration of 5-fu or saline , the animals were sacrificed , and tissue and blood samples were collected for examination . based on the method of sevenerholom , the contents of ganglioside , tsa lsa , and r - sa were determined . one - way anova was conducted to compare the biochemistry index of membrane glycolipids between the 2 groups . kunming mice ( normal mice ) were obtained from the animal center at fu - dan university shanghai medical college . mice containing the ascites - form transplantable hepatoma were obtained from the cancer institute of jiangsu province . the ascites was drawn from the transplantable hepatoma mice by a sterilized injector and placed into bacteria - free 0.9% nacl for dilution ( 1/3 , v / v ) . subsequently , the normal mice were inoculated with 0.2 ml of diluted cells under the skin in the foreleg and armpit regions . the tumors were allowed to grow for 13 days . usually , solid tumors weighing 12 g were found afterwards . the animals were injected with 5-fu ( 0.2 mg/0.2 ml / day ) i.p . at 48 h after tumor cell transplant . in the control group the animals were injected with a sterilized solution of 0.2 ml of 0.9% nacl instead of 5-fu . a third group of animals , raised without hepatoma transplant or any other form of treatment , was used as the normal group . after the administration of 5-fu or saline , the animals were sacrificed , and tissue and blood samples were collected for examination . based on the method of sevenerholom , the contents of ganglioside , tsa lsa , and r - sa were determined . one - way anova was conducted to compare the biochemistry index of membrane glycolipids between the 2 groups . in evaluating the ability of antimetabolic drug 5-fu to inhibit tumor growth , we found that the weight of tumors was significantly different between the 2 groups ( p<0.05 ) ( table 1 ) . ganglioside content in hepatoma tissue was significantly different among the 3 groups ( p<0.01 ) , and those in the therapeutic group were significantly lower than in the control group ( p<0.01 ) . in the plasma of the hepatoma mice , the tsa and lsa contents were higher in in the control group than in the normal group ( p<0.05 ) , but the tsa and lsa content in the therapeutic group was lower than in the control group ( table 3 ) . the tsa and lsa contents in the plasma of the hepatoma mice were higher in the control group than in the therapeutic and normal groups ( p<0.05 ) . no significant difference was found in the r - sa between the therapeutic and control groups . percent inhibition was calculated from the following equation : [ ( tumor weight of control group  tumor weight of the therapeutic group)/tumor weight of the control group ] 100% . * * p<0.05 . to observe the ability of antimetabolism drug 5-fu in the inhibition of tumor growth are showed in table 4 , the transplanted hepatoma group weight of tumor was significance higher than that of normal control group ( p<0.05 ) . therapeutic group , control group and normal group membrane content variety the ganglioside content in hepatoma tissue from the control group was significantly higher than that in normal mouse liver ( p<0.01 ) , whereas those in the therapeutic group was significantly lower than in the control group ( p<0.01 ) . in the plasma of the hepatoma mouse , the tsa and lsa content was significantly higher in the control group than the normal group ( p<0.05 ) , and the therapeutic group was significantly lower than the control group ( table 6 ) . the ability to produce transplantable hepatoma and the effect of 5-fluorouracil ( 5-fu ) in the inhibition of tumor growth are depicted in table 4 . our data reconfirm the ability of 5-fu to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells by competitive inhibition of the synthesis of thymidine monophosphate . the mechanism could involve sialic acid , a family of acylated derivatives of neuragmic acid , which usually occurs as a terminal component at the nonreducing end of carbohydrate chains of glycolipids . cell surface and membrane components play a vital role in neoplastic behavior . increasing concentrations of sialic acid are common on the tumor cell surfaces of neoplasms . the carbohydrate moiety may have an influence on growth , as well as cell - to - cell interaction and the development of malignancy . the biochemistry index of membrane glycolipids may be considered as an ancillary indicator for judging therapy effect in transplanted hepatomas in mice .
backgroundthe aim of this study was to investigate the variety of plasma contents of membrane glycolipids in 65 gastrointestinal tumors and 31 transplant hepatomas in mice.material/methodsthe experimental model was a transplantable murine hepatoma . 
 experimental mice were divided into 3 groups.resultsthe lsa and tsa content in the 2 groups were significantly difference ( p<0.01 ) , and were significantly lower in the therapeutic group than in the control group ( p<0.01).conclusionsthese results indicate that membrane glycolipids index lsa and tsa are sensitive markers in gastrointestinal tumors . in the transplanted hepatomas in mice , they may be considered as ancillary indicators for judging the therapeutic effect of hepatoma .