To establish specific structural evidence that glycans are indeed blunted/altered from the glycan profiling of glycan moieties on the surface of leukocytes

We want to characterize the glycan moieties on the surface of leukocytes treated with fluorinated analogs of glucosamine. Since these metabolic inhibitors compete with natural-occuring glucosamine used in oligosaccharide chain formation, these compounds have been shown to be effective in lowering Type 2 lactosamine and sialylated Lewis antigens, which results in altered selectin ligand functions. We need to establish specific structural evidence that glycans are indeed blunted/altered. Current research efforts include investigations on how circulating leukocytes traffic to inflamed tissues, how circulating solid tumor cells interact with endothelial linings to enhance metastatic potential, and how treatment with analogs of glucosamine disrupt leukocyte trafficking mechanisms and/or influence effector/regulatory function of T cells.