Guest Editorial

InteractionsMANY CONFLICTING and often unrelated statements have been made about the physiologic role of sialic acid moieties bound to the cell periphery and their effect on cellular interactions.Also of current interest is the modification of cell interactions after removal of cell surface sialic acids by incubation with neuraminidase.In this review, I will trace the background of some of the work and attempt to clarify some apparent contradictions.A survey of the literature unfortunately makes necessary the obvious statement that cell surface "glycopeptides" are not synonymous with "sialic acids."This review concerns some effects of neuraminidase and sialic acids on cell interactions and not the much larger topic of cell-surface mucopolysaccharides and the enzymes degrading them.