Modelling of salt intake reduction by incorporation of umami substances into Japanese foods: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Evidence has demonstrated that excess sodium intake is associated with development of several non-communicable diseases. The main source of sodium is salt. Therefore, reducing salt intake in foods is an important global public health effort to achieve sodium reduction and improve health. This study aimed to model salt intake reduction with 'umami' substances among Japanese adults. The umami substances considered in this study include glutamate or monosodium glutamates (MSG), calcium diglutamate (CDG), inosinate, and guanylate. METHODS: A total of 21,805 participants aged 57.8 years on average from the National Health and Nutrition Survey was used in the analysis. First, we employed a multivariable linear regression approach with overall salt intake (g/day) as a dependent variable, adjusting for food items and other covariates to estimate the contribution of salt intake from each food item that was selected through an extensive literature review. Assuming the participants already consume low-sodium products, we considered three scenarios in which salt intake could be reduced with the additional umami substances up to 30%, 60% and 100%. We estimated the total amount of population-level salt reduction for each scenario by age and gender. Under the 100% scenario, the Japan's achievement rates against the national and global salt intake reduction goals were also calculated. RESULTS: Without compromising the taste, the 100% or universal incorporation of umami substances into food items reduced the salt intake of Japanese adults by 12.8-22.3% at the population-level average, which is equivalent to 1.27-2.22 g of salt reduction. The universal incorporation of umami substances into food items changed daily mean salt intake of the total population from 9.95 g to 7.73 g: 10.83 g to 8.40 g for men and 9.21 g to 7.17 g for women, respectively. This study suggested that approximately 60% of Japanese adults could achieve the national dietary goal of 8 g/day, while only 7.6% would meet the global recommendation of 5.0 g/day. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides essential information on the potential salt reduction with umami substances. The universal incorporation of umami substances into food items would enable the Japanese to achieve the national dietary goal. However, the reduced salt intake level still falls short of the global dietary recommendation.

Prediction of disability-adjusted life years for diseases due to low fruit intake in 2017-2040 in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to predict disability-adjusted life years (DALY) rate in Japan through 2040 with plausible future scenarios of fruit intake for neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes and kidney diseases (DKD). DESIGN: Data from National Health and Nutrition Surveys and the Global Burden of Diseases study in 2017 were used. We developed an autoregressive integrated moving average model with four future scenarios. Reference scenario maintains the current trend. Best scenario assumes that the goal defined in Health Japan 21 is achieved in 2023 and is kept constant afterwards. Moderate scenario assumes that the goal is achieved in 2040. Constant scenario applies the same proportion of 2016 for the period between 2017 and 2040. SETTING: DALY rates in Japan were predicted for the period between 2017 and 2040. PARTICIPANTS: Population aged more than than 20 years old. RESULTS: In our reference forecast, the DALY rates in all-ages group were projected to be stable for CVD and continue increasing for neoplasms and DKD. Age group-specific DALY rates for these three disease groups were forecasted to decrease, with some exceptions. Among men aged 20-49 years, DALY attributable to CVD differed substantially between the scenarios, implying that there is a significant potential for reducing the burden of CVD by increasing fruit intake at the population level. CONCLUSIONS: Our scenario analysis shows that higher fruit intake is associated with lower disease burden in Japan. Further research is required to assess which policies and interventions can be used to achieve an increase in fruit intake as modelled in the scenarios of the current study.

Japan's development cooperation for health in Vietnam: a first holistic assessment on Japan's ODA and non-ODA public resources cooperation.

BACKGROUND: Japan strives to strengthen its development cooperation by mobilizing various resources to assist partner countries advance on Universal Health Coverage by 2030. However, the involvement and roles of various actors for health are not clear. This study is the first to map Japan's publicly funded projects by both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and other non-ODA public funds, and to describe the intervention areas. Further, the policy implications for country-specific cooperation strategies are discussed. The development cooperation for health in Vietnam is used as a case in this study. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of the Japanese publicly funded health projects that were being implemented in Vietnam during December 2016 was conducted. A framework of analysis based on the World Health Organization six health systems building blocks was adopted. The projects' qualitative information was also assessed. RESULTS: Overall, 68 projects implemented through Japanese public funding were analyzed. These 68 projects under 15 types of schemes were managed by seven different scheme-operating organizations and funded by five ministries. Of these 44 (64.7%) were ODA and 24 (35.3%) were non-ODA projects. Among the recategorized six building blocks of the health system, the largest proportion of projects was health service delivery (44%), followed by health workforces (25%), and health information systems (15%). Almost half the projects were implemented together with the central hospitals as Vietnamese counterparts, which suggests that this is one area in which the specificities of Japanese cooperation are demonstrated. No synergetic effects of potential collaboration or harmonization among Japanese funded projects were captured. CONCLUSIONS: Several Japanese-funded projects addressed a wide range of health issues across all six building blocks of the health system in Vietnam. However, there is room for improvement in developing coordination and harmonization among the diversified Japanese projects. Establishing a country-specific mechanism for strategic coordination across Japanese ministries' schemes can yield efficient and effective development cooperation for health. While Vietnam's dependence on external funding is low, the importance of coordination across domestic actors of the donor countries can serve as an important lesson, especially in beneficiary countries with high external funding dependency.

Projections of disability-adjusted life years for major diseases due to a change in vegetable intake in 2017-2040 in Japan.

BACKGROUND: Low vegetable intake is one of the key dietary risk factors known to be associated with a range of health problems, including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, and diabetes and kidney diseases (DKDs). Using data from Japan's National Health and Nutrition Surveys and the Global Burden of Diseases study in 2017, this study aimed to forecast the impact of change in vegetable intake on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) between 2017 and 2040 for three diseases. METHODS: We generated a three-component model of cause-specific DALYs, including changes in major behavioural and metabolic risk predictors, the socio-demographic index and an autoregressive integrated moving average model to project future DALY rates for 2017-2040 using the data between 1990 and 2016. Data on Vegetable consumption and risk predictors, and DALY rate were obtained from Japan's National Health and Nutrition Surveys and the Global Burden of Diseases Study in 2017. We also modelled three scenarios of better, moderate and worse cases to evaluate the impact of change in vegetable consumption on the DALY rates for three diseases (CVDs, cancer, and DKDs). RESULTS: Projected mean vegetable intake in the total population showed a decreasing trend through 2040 to 237.7 g/day. A significant difference between the reference scenario and the better case scenario was observed with un-overlapped 95% prediction intervals of DALY rates in females aged 20-49 years (- 8.0%) for CVDs, the total population for cancer (- 5.6%), and in males (- 8.2%) and females (- 13.7%) for DKDs. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis indicates that increased vegetable consumption would have a significant reduction in the burdens of CVDs, cancer and DKDs in Japan. By estimating the disease burden attributable to low vegetable intake under different scenarios of future vegetable consumption, our study can inform the design of targeted interventions for public health challenges.

Developing and validating regression models for predicting household consumption to introduce an equitable and sustainable health insurance system in Cambodia.

BACKGROUND: Financial protection is a challenge for low- and middle-income countries, where the fiscal space is limited, and majority of the population is engaged in the informal economy. This study developed and validated household consumption predictive models for Cambodia to collect contributions according to one's ability to pay. METHODS: This study used nationally representative survey data collected annually between 2010 and 2017, involving 38,472 households. We developed four alternative models: the manually selected linear model, the linear model with stepwise technique, the mixed effects linear model, and the model with regularisation technique. Subsequently, we performed out-of-sample cross-validation for each model, and evaluated the model prediction performance. RESULTS: Overall, observed and predicted household consumptions were linearly related in all four models. While the prediction performance of the models did not substantially differ, the stepwise linear model showed the best performance. The regularisation and the mixed effects were not particularly effective in these regressions. The household consumption was better predicted for those with lower consumption, and the predictivity declined as the consumption level increased. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests the possibility of predicting household consumption at a reasonable level. This would maximise the contribution revenue, optimise the government subsidy, and ensure equity in healthcare access.

Tracking Japan's development assistance for health, 2012-2016.

BACKGROUND: Development assistance for health (DAH) is one of the most important means for Japan to promote diplomacy with developing countries and contribute to the international community. This study, for the first time, estimated the gross disbursement of Japan's DAH from 2012 to 2016 and clarified its flows, including source, aid type, channel, target region, and target health focus area. METHODS: Data on Japan Tracker, the first data platform of Japan's DAH, were used. The DAH definition was based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) sector classification. Regarding core funding to non-health-specific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA). RESULTS: Japan's DAH was estimated at 1472.94 (2012), 823.15 (2013), 832.06 (2014), 701.98 (2015), and 894.57 million USD (2016) in constant prices of 2016. Multilateral agencies received the largest DAH share of 44.96-57.01% in these periods, followed by bilateral grants (34.59-53.08%) and bilateral loans (1.96-15.04%). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was the largest contributors to the DAH (76.26-82.68%), followed by Ministry of Finance (MOF) (10.86-16.25%). Japan's DAH was most heavily distributed in the African region with 41.64-53.48% share. The channel through which the most DAH went was Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (20.04-34.89%). Between 2012 and 2016, approximately 70% was allocated to primary health care and the rest to health system strengthening. CONCLUSIONS: With many major high-level health related meetings ahead, coming years will play a powerful opportunity to reevaluate DAH and shape the future of DAH for Japan. We hope that the results of this study will enhance the social debate for and contribute to the implementation of Japan's DAH with a more efficient and effective strategy.

Forecasting disability-adjusted life years for chronic diseases: reference and alternative scenarios of salt intake for 2017-2040 in Japan.

BACKGROUND: In Japan, a high-sodium diet is the most important dietary risk factor and is known to cause a range of health problems. This study aimed to forecast Japan's disability-adjusted life year (DALYs) for chronic diseases that would be associated with high-sodium diet in different future scenarios of salt intake. We modelled DALY forecast and alternative future scenarios of salt intake for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), chronic kidney diseases (CKDs), and stomach cancer (SC) from 2017 to 2040. METHODS: We developed a three-component model of disease-specific DALYs: a component on the changes in major behavioural and metabolic risk predictors including salt intake; a component on the income per person, educational attainment, and total fertility rate under 25 years; and an autoregressive integrated moving average model to capture the unexplained component correlated over time. Data on risk predictors were obtained from Japan's National Health and Nutrition Surveys and from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. To generate a reference forecast of disease-specific DALY rates for 2017-2040, we modelled the three diseases using the data for 1990-2016. Additionally, we generated better, moderate, and worse scenarios to evaluate the impact of change in salt intake on the DALY rate for the diseases. RESULTS: In our reference forecast, the DALY rates across all ages were predicted to be stable for CVDs, continuously increasing for CKDs, and continuously decreasing for SC. Meanwhile, the age group-specific DALY rates for these three diseases were forecasted to decrease, with some exceptions. Except for the ≥70 age group, there were remarkable differences in DALY rates between scenarios, with the best scenario having the lowest DALY rates in 2040 for SC. This represents a wide scope of future trajectories by 2040 with a potential for tremendous decrease in SC burden. CONCLUSIONS: The gap between scenarios provides some quantification of the range of policy impacts on future trajectories of salt intake. Even though we do not yet know the policy mix used to achieve these scenarios, the result that there can be differences between scenarios means that policies today can have a significant impact on the future DALYs.

Challenges and opportunities for eliminating tuberculosis - leveraging political momentum of the UN high-level meeting on tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: As demonstrated by the United Nations High-Level Meeting on tuberculosis (TB) held in September 2018, the political momentum for TB has been increasing. The aim of this study was to analyze the current challenges and opportunities for global TB control and, with specific focus on policies surrounding TB control, to reveal what kinds of efforts are needed to accelerate global TB control. METHODS: We organized two expert meetings with the purposes of assessing the current situation and analyzing challenges regarding TB control. By applying Shiffman and Smith's framework which contains four categories; Actor, Ideas, Political context, and Issue characteristics, we analyzed the challenges and opportunities for global TB control based on the findings from the two expert meetings. RESULTS: In the Actor Category, we found that although there has already been active engagement by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sectors, there still remained an area with room for improvement. In particular, the complexities behind varying drug regulatory and procurement systems per country hindered the active participation of the private sector in this area. As for the Ideas category, due to an increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance and growing number of global migrations, TB is now widely recognized as a health security issue rather than a purely health issue. This makes TB an easier target for political attention. As for the Political category, having the UN High-Level Meeting itself is not enough; such meetings must be followed up by actual commitments from heads of states. Lastly the issue characteristic indicates that the amount of funding for R&D for new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for TB is not at an adequate level, and investment in childhood TB and missing cases are particularly in need. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important insight into the current status of global efforts toward end TB epidemic. The outcomes from the UN high-level meeting on TB need to be closely monitored will be crucial for the progress towards this goal.

Tracking Development Assistance for Health: A Comparative Study of the 29 Development Assistance Committee Countries, 2011-2019.

Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important part of financing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the gross disbursement of DAH of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2011-2019; and clarified its flows, including aid type, channel, target region, and target health focus area. Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The DAH definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to non-health-specific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA). The total amount of DAH for all countries combined was 18.5 billion USD in 2019, at 17.4 USD per capita, with the 2011-2019 average of 19.7 billion USD. The average share of DAH in ODA for the 29 countries was about 7.9% in 2019. Between 2011 and 2019, most DAC countries allocated approximately 60% of their DAH to primary health care, with the remaining 40% allocated to health system strengthening. We expect that the estimates of this study will help DAC member countries strategize future DAH wisely, efficiently, and effectively while ensuring transparency.

Tracking sectoral allocation of official development assistance: a comparative study of the 29 Development Assistance Committee countries, 2011-2018.

Background: Official development assistance (ODA) is one of the most important means for donor countries to foster diplomatic relations with low- and middle-income countries and contribute to the welfare of the international community.Objective: This study estimated the sectoral allocation of gross disbursements of ODA of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the duration of 2011 to 2018, by aid type (bilateral, multilateral, and both aids).Methods: Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The sector definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to multilateral agencies that do not specialize in each aid sector, we estimated ODA and its flows based on the OECD methodology for calculating imputed multilateral ODA.Results: For all 29 countries, during the period of 2014-2018 where data were available for all the countries, the sector with the highest average annual ODA contribution was health at 20.34 billion USD (13.21%), followed by humanitarian aid at 18.04 billion (11.72%). Humanitarian aid has increased in the sectoral share rankings in both bilateral and multilateral aid, and the sectoral share for refugees in donor countries has increased in bilateral aid. While the 29 countries show relatively similar trends for sectoral shares, some countries and sectors display unique trends. For instance, infrastructure and energy sectors in bilateral aid of Japan are particularly high accounts for 48.48% of the total bilateral ODA of the country in 2018.Conclusions: This paper evaluated ODA trends by major donors of DAC countries in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic periods. We hope that our estimates will contribute to the review of the strategic decision-making and the effective implementation of future ODA policy discussions in the DAC countries while ensuring transparency.

Hospital admission for type 2 diabetes mellitus under the Universal Coverage Scheme in Thailand: A time- and geographical-trend analysis, 2009-2016.

BACKGROUND: Descriptive analyses of 2009-2016 were performed using the data of the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) which covers nearly 70 percent of the Thai population. The analyses described the time and geographical trends of nationwide admission rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its complications, including chronic kidney disease (CKD), myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular diseases, retinopathy, cataract, and diabetic foot amputation. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The database of T2DM patients aged 15-100 years who were admitted between 2009 and 2016 under the UCS and that of the UCS population were retrieved for the analyses. The admitted cases of T2DM were extracted from the database using disease codes of principal and secondary diagnoses defined by the International Classification of Diseases 9th and 10th Revisions. The T2DM admission rates in 2009-2016 were the number of admissions divided by the number of the UCS population. The standardized admission rates (SARs)were further estimated in contrast to the expected number of admissions considering age and sex composition of the UCS population in each region. A linearly increased trend was found in T2DM admission rates from 2009 to 2016. Female admission rates were persistently higher than that of males. In 2016, an increase in the T2DM admission rates was observed among the older ages relative to that in 2009. Although the SARs of T2DM were generally higher in Bangkok and central regions in 2009, except that with CKD and foot amputation which had higher trends in northeastern regions, the geographical inequalities were fairly reduced by 2016. CONCLUSION: Admission rates of T2DM and its major complications increased in Thailand from 2009 to 2016. Although the overall geographical inequalities in the SARs of T2DM were reduced in the country, further efforts are required to improve the health system and policies focusing on risk factors and regions to manage the increasing T2DM.

Ongoing debate on data governance principles for achieving Universal Health Coverage: a proposal to post-G20 Osaka Summit meetings.

The Group of 20 Summit (G20) in Osaka, which Japan chaired for the first time in June 2019 has created a tailwind for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) globally. In response to the rapid digitalization, the G20 leaders commenced negotiations for the Osaka Track framework to formulate international rules on data flow across borders and systematize the concept of 'Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT).' The strategic harnessing of the power of data to strengthen the healthcare system can allow for rapid and affordable progress toward achieving UHC. However, world leaders have yet to discuss what data governance approaches the Osaka Track will follow, or even on what values it will seek to create and maximize. In this paper, we propose a people-centered, trust-oriented approach as the key principle of data governance toward achieving UHC, using Japan's experience as an example. We believe that this approach is compatible with other prevailing approaches (e.g. the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union), and can serve as a bridge to their conceptual differences. We hope that our proposed principles will be fully discussed in post-G20 Osaka Summit meetings.

Limited alignment of publicly competitive disease funding with disease burden in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: The need to align investments in health research and development (R&D) with public health needs is one of the most important public health challenges in Japan. We examined the alignment of disease-specific publicly competitive R&D funding to the disease burden in the country. METHODS: We analyzed publicly available data on competitive public funding for health in 2015 and 2016 and compared it to disability-adjusted life year (DALYs) in 2016, which were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study. Their alignment was assessed as a percentage distribution among 22 GBD disease groups. Funding was allocated to the 22 disease groups based on natural language processing, using textual information such as project title and abstract for each research project, while considering for the frequency of information. RESULTS: Total publicly competitive funding in health R&D in 2015 and 2016 reached 344.1 billion JPY (about 3.0 billion USD) for 32,204 awarded projects. About 49.5% of the funding was classifiable for disease-specific projects. Five GDB disease groups were significantly and relatively well-funded compared to their contributions to Japan's DALY, including neglected tropical diseases and malaria (funding vs DALY = 1.7% vs 0.0%, p<0.01) and neoplasms (28.5% vs 19.2%, p<0.001). In contrast, four GDB disease groups were significantly under-funded, including cardiovascular diseases (8.0% vs 14.8%, p<0.001) and musculoskeletal disorders (1.0% vs 11.9%, p<0.001). These percentages do not include unclassifiable funding. CONCLUSIONS: While caution is necessary as this study was not able to consider public in-house funding and the methodological uncertainties could not be ruled out, the analysis may provide a snapshot of the limited alignment between publicly competitive disease-specific funding and the disease burden in the country. The results call for greater management over the allocation of scarce resources on health R&D. DALYs will serve as a crucial, but not the only, consideration in aligning Japan's research priorities with the public health needs. In addition, the algorithms for natural language processing used in this study require continued efforts to improve accuracy.

Accumulation of free complex-type N-glycans in MKN7 and MKN45 stomach cancer cells.

During the N-glycosylation reaction, it has been shown that 'free' N-glycans are generated either from lipid-linked oligosaccharides or from misfolded glycoproteins. In both cases, occurrence of high mannose-type free glycans is well-documented, and the molecular mechanism for their catabolism in the cytosol has been studied. On the other hand, little, if anything, is known with regard to the accumulation of more processed, complex-type free oligosaccharides in the cytosol of mammalian cells. During the course of comprehensive analysis of N-glycans in cancer cell membrane fractions [Naka et al. (2006) J. Proteome Res. 5, 88-97], we found that a significant amount of unusual, complex-type free N-glycans were accumulated in the stomach cancer-derived cell lines, MKN7 and MKN45. The most abundant and characteristic glycan found in these cells was determined to be NeuAcalpha2-6Galbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-2Manalpha1-3Manbeta1-4GlcNAc. Biochemical analyses indicated that those glycans found were cytosolic glycans derived from lysosomes due to low integrity of the lysosomal membrane. Since the accumulation of these free N-glycans was specific to only two cell lines among the various cancer cell lines examined, these cytosolic N-glycans may serve as a specific biomarker for diagnosis of specific tumours. A cytosolic sialidase, Neu2, was shown to be involved in the degradation of these sialoglycans, indicating that the cytosol of mammalian cells might be equipped for metabolism of complex-type glycans.

The role of the G20 economies in global health.

The Meetings of Health Ministers of the Group of Twenty (G20) that started at the G20 Summit in Berlin, Germany in 2017 have provided a platform for the discussion of global health matters such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), public health emergencies, and universal health coverage. Similar issues are also discussed at meetings of the G7 and the World Health Assembly (WHA). This article will examine recent data to explore the characteristics of the G20 and its potential for improving health outcomes. G20 countries have a leading role to play in helping other countries improve global health outcomes because member countries have already faced many issues associated with aging society and increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Indeed, 71% of the world's elderly population lives in the G20 countries and most of these countries have a high proportional mortality from NCDs of more than 70%. G20 countries are also responsible for a disproportionate share of global impacts. For instance, 72% of CO2 emissions are produced by G20 countries. Migration dynamics and its consequences also need to be considered from the perspective of optimizing health outcomes. Moreover, 78% of the world's top 50 pharmaceutical companies are located in the G20 countries. There is ample room for G20 countries to pursue collaborative and cooperative approaches that can complement the roles of the G7 and WHA in similar health issues. The G20 could, for example, share experiences on dealing with aging and NCDs, reduce their CO2 emissions, prohibit the production of low-quality medicines, and use standardized health check-up formats for migrants and refugees to transfer their own health information. As a group, the G20 countries have the potential to solve global health problems and other issues. The convening of high-level health meetings at G20 summits has the potential to facilitate such endeavors.

Analysis of total N-glycans in cell membrane fractions of cancer cells using a combination of serotonin affinity chromatography and normal phase chromatography.

Cell surface glycans and recognition molecules of these glycans play important roles in cellular recognition and trafficking, such as in the inflammation response by sialyl LewisX oligosaccharides. Malignant cells also utilize a similar mechanism during colonization and establishment of tumor tissues in the host. These considerations prompt us to develop a screening method for comprehensive analysis of N-glycans derived from membrane fractions of cancer cells. The method involves two step separations. Initially, N-glycans released from cell membrane fractions with N-glycoamidase F were labeled with 2-aminobenzoic acid and separated based on the number of sialic acid residues attached to the oligosaccharides using affinity chromatography on a serotonin-immobilized stationary phase. Each of the nonretarded fractions containing asialo- and high-mannose type oligosaccharides and mono-, di-, tri-, and tetra-sialooligosaccharide fractions which were desialylated with neuraminidase was analyzed by a combination of HPLC using an Amide-80 column as the stationary phase and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). We analyzed total N-glycan pools of membrane fractions obtained from some cancer cells, and found that U937 cells (Histocytic lymphoma cells) expressed a large amount of oligosaccharides having polylactosamine residues and MKN45 cells (Gastric adenocarcinoma cells) contained hyper-fucosylated oligosaccharides which contained multiple fucose residues. The method described here will be a powerful technique for glycomics studies in cell surface glycoproteins, and will enable one to search marker oligosaccharides characteristically observed in various diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and congenital disorder.