Regio-regular structure high molecular weight poly(propylene carbonate) by rare earth ternary catalyst and Lewis base cocatalyst

Lewis base modification strategy on rare earth ternary catalyst was disclosed to enhance nucleophilic ability of active center during copolymerization of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide (PO), poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) with H-T linkages over 83%, and number-average molecular weight (M-n) up to 100 kg/mol was synthesized at room temperature using Y(CCl3OO)(3)-ZnEt2-glycerine catalyst and 1,10-phenanthroline (PHEN) cocatalyst. Coordination of PHEN with active Zinc center enhanced the nucleophilic ability of the metal carbonate, which became more regio-specific in attacking carbon in PO, leading to PPC with improved H-T linkages.

路易斯碱催化还原胺化反应研究

胺及其衍生物是很多重要生物活性分子的结构单元，是合成天然产物和手性药物的重要中间体。 直接还原胺化由于其合成步骤简单而成为制备二级胺和三级胺的简便方法。为了发展一种较为简便的直接还原胺化反应，我们把研究的重点放在开发一种简便实用的有机小分子催化方法上。由文献调研可知，现已报道的直接还原胺化方法大多是催化醛或酮与一级胺或者脂肪二级胺的直接还原胺化，而醛或酮与芳香二级胺的直接还原胺化却尚无报道。在本文中，我们发现用简单的四甲基乙二胺(TEMED)在室温下以二氯甲烷为溶剂即可催化三氯氢硅对酮和芳香二级胺之间的直接还原胺化反应，并取得了高达92%的收率。该反应条件温和，底物普适性广，各种类型的酮均可以与芳香二级胺进行直接还原胺化，并且得到比较满意的收率。 同时，我们从手性Sulfoximine出发，设计和合成了一系列的Sulfoximine类新衍生物，并将其应用于间接还原胺化反应中。遗憾的是我们并没有得到预期的不对称催化效果。 Amines and their derivatives are basic structural motifs in natural products and pharmaceuticals and highly versatile building blocks for various organic substrates. Direct reductive amination (DRA) is a convenient method for the preparation of secondary and tertiary amines owing to its operational simplicity. In an effort to develop a simple and convenient procedure for direct reductive amination reaction, we focused our study on search for a mild and efficient organocatalytic system. In the literature, there are many reports concerning DRA between aldehydes or ketones and either primary amines or secondary aliphatic amines. But there are no reports concerning DRA between aldehydes or ketones and secondary aromatic amines. In this study, we have developed a highly practical method for the synthesis of tertiary amines by the direct reductive amination of ketones and secondary aromatic amines with tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) as the catalyst using HSiCl3 as the reducing agent in dichloromethane (affording up to 92% yield). This method can be carried out under mild conditions and is compatible with many functional groups. A variety of ketones were efficiently aminated with secondary aromatic amines to afford the corresponding amines in good to excellent yields. Starting from chiral sulfoximine, we designed and synthesized a series of new sulfoximine derivatives and tested their efficiencies as asymmetric organocatalysts for the reduction of imines, which, unfortunately, only exhibited low catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.

手性有机小分子路易斯碱催化剂的设计、合成及其在亚胺不对称还原中的应用

手性胺是合成天然产物和手性药物的重要中间体，亚胺的不对称催化还原是制备光学活性手性胺的最直接有效的方法之一。但是，由于C＝N双键的反应活性较弱以及容易发生E/Z异构等问题，亚胺的不对称催化还原具有很大的挑战性，既具有高对映选择性又具有宽广底物普适性的催化剂很少。 本文分别由手性脯氨酸、哌啶酸、哌嗪酸以及氨基醇出发，设计和合成了一系列结构新颖、合成简便、性能优良的酰胺类有机小分子路易斯碱催化剂，以廉价的三氯氢硅为氢源，用这些催化剂催化亚胺不对称还原，得到了非常优良的收率、对映选择性和前所未有的底物普适性。 文献研究认为，除N-甲酰基外，分子内含有芳香酰胺是能催化亚胺还原的有机小分子路易斯碱催化剂具有较高对映选择性的必要条件，我们研究发现N-甲酰脯氨酸非芳香酰胺类催化剂（包括结构简单的C2-对称型脯氨酰胺类催化剂），对N-芳基酮亚胺的还原可获得达86%的对映选择性，远高于同类芳香酰胺催化剂，证明N-甲酰非芳香酰胺类路易斯碱催化剂在亚胺还原中也能得到高的对映选择性。 在进一步研究中，我们以手性六元哌啶酸为模板，分别设计合成了N-甲酰哌啶酸芳香酰胺和N-甲酰哌啶酸非芳香酰胺两类催化剂，其中芳香酰胺催化剂（S）-N-（甲酰基）哌啶-2-酸-1-萘基酰胺（28）和非芳香酰胺催化剂（2S,1'S,2'S）-N-（甲酰基）-哌啶-2-酸（1',2'-二苯基-2'-乙酰氧基-乙基）酰胺（30）显示出非常优良的催化活性和对映选择性，对于N-芳基芳香酮亚胺的还原，无论是缺电子体系还是富电子体系，绝大部分都能得到很高的收率（达98%）和对映选择性（达96% ee)。特别值得一提的是30对一些脂肪族亚胺和α,β-不饱和亚胺的还原，虽然底物为E/Z混合物，也能得到很高的收率（达93%）和对映选择性（达95% ee)，这样的底物普适性在过渡金属催化体系中也是前所未有的。 现有的催化亚胺还原的高对映选择性催化体系大多仅适用于甲基酮亚胺底物，对位阻较大的非甲基酮亚胺很难获得好的结果。我们以L-哌嗪酸为模板设计和合成出的（S）-N-（甲酰基）-哌嗪-2-酸-4-对叔丁基苯磺酰基-苯基酰胺不但对N-芳基甲基酮亚胺有很好的对映选择性（达90% ee)，而且对于大位阻的N-芳基非甲基酮亚胺有更好的对映选择性（达97% ee)。该催化剂与30在底物普适性方面具有很好的互补性。 我们还设计了基于1,2-二苯基氨基醇为模板的新型N-甲酰路易斯碱有机小分子催化剂，首次发现结构简单的N-甲酰（1S,2R）二苯基氨基醇能较好的催化N-芳基酮亚胺，最高可以得到82%的对映选择性。 针对我们设计合成的结构新颖、性能优良的催化剂，我们对催化机理进行了探讨和解释，提出了几个假想的机理模型。 Catalytic enantioselective reduction of imines represents one of the most straightforward and efficient methods for the preparation of chiral amines, an important intermediate for the synthesis of natural products and chiral drugs. However, asymmetric reduction of imines remains a big challenge and highly enantioselective catalysts with a satisfactorily broad substrate scope remain elusive. Factors contributing to the difficulty of this transformation include the weak reactivity of the C=N bond and the existence of inseparable mixtures of E/Z isomers. Starting from chiral proline, pipecolinic acid, piperazine-2-carboxylic acid and 1,2-diphenyl amino alcohol, a series of structurally simple and easily prepared amides were developed as highly effective Lewis basic organocatalysts for the asymmetric reduction of imines with trichlorosilane as the reducing agent, which promoted the reduction of N-aryl imines with high yields and excellent enantioselectivities with an unprecedented substrate spectrum. In the literature, it has been believed that besides the N-formyl group, the existence of an arylamido group in the structure of Lewis basic organocatalysts is a prerequisite for obtaining high enantioselectivity in the catalytic reduction of imines. However, we found that the N-formyl-L-prolinamides bearing non-arylamido groups, including structurally simple C2-symmetric tetraamides, could also work as effective Lewis basic catalysts to promote the asymmetric reduction of ketimines with high enantioselectivities (up to 86% ee), which are even more enantioselective than the analogues with arylamido groups. In further studies, we developed novel N-formamides with arylamido groups and non-arylmido groups as Lewis basic catalysts using the commercially available L-pipecolinic acid as the template. The catalysts (S)-1-formyl-piperidine-2-carboxylic acid naphthylamide 28 and (2S,1'S,2'S)-acetic acid 2-[(1-formyl-piperidine-2-carbonyl) -amino]-1,2-diphenyl-ethyl ester 30 were found to promote the reduction of a broad range of N-aryl imines in high yields (up to 98%) and excellent ee values (up to 96%) under mild conditions. Furthermore, catalyst 30 also exhibited high enantioselectivities (up to 95% ee) for the challenging aliphatic ketimines and α,β-unsaturated imines despite that these imines exist as E/Z isomeric mixtures. The broad substrate spectrum of this catalyst is unprecedented in catalytic asymmetric imine reduction, including transition-metal-catalyzed hydrogenation processes. Many of the currently available highly enantioselective catalytic systems only tolerate methyl ketimines, which gave poor results for bulkier non-methyl ketimines. Starting from L-piperazine-2-carboxylic acid, we developed (S)-4-(4-tert- butylbenzenesulfonyl)-1-formyl-N-phenyl-piperazine-2-carboxamide as highly enantioselective Lewis basic catalysts for the hydrosilylation of both methyl ketimines and steric bulky non-methyl ketimines. Moreover, higher enantioselectivities were obtained for non-methyl ketimines than methyl ketimines under the catalysis of this catalyst. Thus, this catalyst system complements with 30 in terms of the substrate scope. We also found that easily accessible (1R,2S)-N-formyl-1,2-diphenyl- 2-aminoethanol worked as an effective Lewis basic catalyst in the enantioselective hydrosilylation of ketimines, affording high enantioselectivities (up to 82% ee) for a broad range of ketimines. To rationalize the high efficiencies of the structurally novel catalysts we developed, several catalytic models have been proposed.

路易斯碱催化的烯胺不对称还原研究

手性胺不仅是许多天然产物和手性药物的重要结构单元，而且也是非常有用的拆分试剂、手性配体和手性催化剂。亚胺和烯胺的不对称催化还原是制备手性胺的最直接有效的方式之一，手性有机小分子催化的亚胺不对称还原已取得了很大的进展，但到目前为止，有机小分子催化的烯胺不对称还原极少见文献报道。 本研究以廉价的三氯氢硅为氢源、DMF 等路易斯碱为催化剂实现了烯胺的高效还原。通过反应条件的优化，各种烯胺底物在0.1 eq. DMF 催化下、12 个小时内可以获得非常高的收率（>93%）。 在本课题组前期研究的基础上，我们筛选并设计了一系列以手性哌啶酸和叔丁基亚磺酰胺为母体的有机小分子路易斯碱催化剂，它们能催化三氯氢硅对(Z)-N-苄氧羰基-1-苯基丙烯胺的不对称还原，获得很高的收率和中等的对映选择性，并且具有很好的底物普适性。另外，通过机理方面的研究，我们推测在反应过程中一分子烯胺先捕获一个质子而转变为亚胺正离子，然后受到路易斯碱活化的三氯氢硅中的富电氢原子进攻该亚胺正离子得到还原产物。 另外，本文列出了在此课题进展中所发现的一些新反应，并且试图去阐释这些反应的作用机理。 Catalytic enantioselective reduction of imines and enamines represents one of the most straightforward and efficient methods for the preparation of chiral amines, which are not only important building blocks of many natrural products and chiral drugs, but also can serve as useful resolution reagents, chiral ligands and chiral catalysts. By now, asymmetric reduction of enamines catalyzed by organocatalysts has scarcely been reported, although organocatalyzed enantioselective reduction of imines has already gained great progress. In this study, we report the DMF-catalyzed reduction of enamines with high yields using HSiCl3 as the reducing agent. Under the optimized reaction conditions, various enamines can be reduced in the presence of 0.1 eq. DMF with high yields (>93%) in 12 hours. We screened a set of Lewis base organocatalysts derived from chiral pipecolinic acid and tert-butanesulfinamide for the reduction of (Z)-N-Cbz-1- phenylpropenamine, including newly designed ones and some of those previously developed in our lab. However, only moderate stereoselectivities, albeit high yields were obtained. As for the mechanism, we speculate that the enamine firstly engages a proton to form an iminium species, which is then attacked by the nucleophlic hydrogen of HSiCl3 activated by Leiws base. During the above studies, we have also discovered some new reactions, for which feasible mechanisms were proposed.

硫手性有机小分子催化剂的设计、合成及其在不对称亚胺氢转移还原中的应用

过去十多年，世界手性药物市场需求迅速增长，手性制药工业的发展壮大，已经引起了各国政府、学术界，特别是企业界的高度重视。手性药物中含有大量的手性胺单元，因此研究高效构建手性胺结构单元的方法具有重要的意义和实用价值，而亚胺的不对称还原是合成手性胺最便捷的方法。 手性有机小分子路易斯碱催化三氯氢硅不对称还原亚胺是最近几年才发展起来的一类新的亚胺不对称还原方法。尽管在对映选择性和底物适用范围等方面已经获得了突破性的进展，但是，高性能的路易斯碱催化剂仅局限于N-甲酰氨基酸酰胺一种类型，而且其底物适用范围和催化活性仍不够理想。因此，发展新型催化剂很有必要。 手性硫氧化物作为手性诱导剂的应用已经有数十年的时间，广泛应用在不对称合成及天然产物的全合成中。理论上，硫氧结构单元也可以作为路易斯碱，对硅烷类试剂进行活化，而且硫氧键还有碳氧键难以比拟的先天优势，硫原子自带手性特征，在反应过程中，手性中心离反应位点更近，因此，从手性硫氧化合物出发，极有可能开发出新的高效手性路易斯碱催化剂。最近，Kobayashi和Khiar在亚胺的不对称烯丙基化反应中用手性亚砜活化烯丙基三氯硅烷，获得了较好的ee值，但反应中手性亚砜的用量都需要化学计量以上，因此还不能算做真正意义上的催化剂，进一步的文献调研也未见真正意义上的硫手性有机小分子催化剂。 本文首次成功将硫手性亚磺酰胺衍生物应用于催化三氯氢硅对亚胺的不对称还原，在经过对亚磺酰胺衍生物的多次结构优化，开发出了合成容易，催化活性和立体选择性都很优良，并且有着前所未有的底物普适性的新型手性路易斯碱催化剂。 我们首先尝试将商品化的20mol%叔丁基亚磺酰胺和对甲基亚磺酰胺直接用作催化剂催化三氯氢硅对亚胺的不对称还原，尽管仅获得中等的收率和很低的对映选择性，但证明我们的设计思路是可行的。在此基础上，我们以叔丁基亚磺酰胺为原料和基本骨架，设计合成了一系列的亚磺酰胺类催化剂，通过对催化剂的结构改造，发现当催化剂中存在较强酸性的酚羟基时，催化效果得到大幅提高。随着对催化剂的进一步结构优化，我们找到了一个结构简单，催化效果还不错的催化剂，经过反应条件优化以后，催化反应的收率最高能达到98%，对映选择性最高达93%，并且这个催化剂的底物适应范围比之前报道的催化剂都要广泛。针对酚羟基在催化剂中的重要作用，我们进行了仔细的机理研究后发现，在催化反应中，催化剂极有可能是通过双分子机理去活化三氯氢硅从而实现不对称催化的，而酚羟基的作用就是通过分子间氢键促进双分子催化剂与三氯氢硅的络合。受此启发，我们设计了一系列具有双齿结构的催化剂，通过对双齿催化剂的结构优化，最终筛选出了一个结构更加简单，但催化效果更好的双齿催化剂。10mol%该催化剂催化亚胺还原最高获得95%的收率和96%的ee值。这一结果也进一步验证了我们先前对催化剂机理的推测。 随后，我们还尝试将这些催化剂用于二级胺和芳香酮的直接还原胺化反应中，虽然能获得不错的收率，但对映选择性却很差，我们对反应条件进行了仔细的摸索，仍然没有获得突破。但这些实验为进一步研究二级胺和酮的不对称直接还原胺化反应奠定了良好的基础。 In the past decade, the rapid growth of the global chiral drug market and the significant development of the chiral pharmaceutical industry have attracted a great deal of attention from government, academia and enterprises. Chiral amine is an important structural motif of chiral drugs. Therefore, development of methods for the construction of this motif is of great importance. Catalytic enantioselective reduction of imines represents one of the most straightforward and efficient methods for the preparation of chiral amines. The chiral Lewis base organocatalysts promoted asymmetric reduction of imines by HSiCl3 has recently achieved significant advancements. Although big breakthroughs have been made in terms of substrate generality and enantioselectivity, the highly effective catalysts are limited to N-formyl amino acid amides, of which the efficiency and substrate scope remain unsatisfactory. Therefore, development of novel organocatalysts for this transformation is in great demand. Chiral sulfoxides have been well established as efficient and versatile stereocontrollers and have been extensively used in asymmetric synthesis and total synthesis of natural products. The S=O structural motif of sulfoxide could also behave as Lewis base activator for cholorsilane reagents, which, moreover, could be even better than caboxamide considering that the sulfur atom is chiral and thus the chirality center is closer to the reaction center. There exist great potentials that highly effective novel Lewis base organocatalysts could be developed starting from S-chiral sulfoxides. Recently, several S-chiral sulfoxides were reported by Kobayashi and Khiar to be used as Lewis base catalyst to activate allyltrichlorosilanes in asymmetric allylations and good enantioselectivities were obtained. However, these S-chiral sulfoxides were all used at a more than stoichiometric amount and were thus not authentically catalytic. A careful literature survey further revealed that there has been so far no S-chiral organocatalyst available. In this study, we, for the first time, successfully used S-chiral sulfinamides as Lewis base organocatalysts for the asymmetric reduction of ketimines by HSiCl3. After several rounds of structural optimization, we developed the first example of highly effective S-chiral organocatalysts, which promoted the asymmetric reduction of ketimines with trichlorosilane in high yield and excellent enantioselectivity with unprecedented substrate spectrum. In our initial practice, we examined 20mol% of the commercially available (R)-tert-butanesulfinamide and (S)-toluenesulfinamide as the catalyst in the hydrosilylation of ketimine. Although the product was only furnished in moderate yield and low ee, these results demonstrated that our strategy of catalyst design is on the right way. Next, starting from chiral tert-butanesulfinamide, we prepared a series of tert-butanesulfinamide derivatives via simple reductive amination and examined their catalytic efficiencies in the reduction of ketimine. We found that the catalyst bearing a phenolic hydroxyl group exhibited good reactivity and enantioselectivity. On the basis of which, we obtained a structurally simple and highly effective novel organocatalyst, affording the product in 98% yield and 93% ee under optimal reaction conditions. After careful exploration on the role of phenolic hydroxyl group in the catalyst, we speculated that two molecules of the catalyst be involved in the course of reaction, of which the assembly around the silicon center is facilitated by the intermolecular hydrogen bonding through the phenolic hydroxyl groups. Thus, we incorporated two units of sulfonamide into one molecular and prepared a new type of bissulfinamides organocatalysts and examined their catalytic efficiencies in the reduction of ketimine. After optimizing the structure of these catalysts, we finally obtained a novel organocatalyst which has even simpler molecular structure but showed better efficacies, 10mol% of which afforded up to 97% yield and 96% ee under optimal reaction conditions. These results further proved our speculation about the catalytic mechanism. We also examined the newly developed S-chiral organocatalysts in direct asymmetric reductive amination of secondary amines with aromatic ketone. The product was furnished in good yield but in low ee. No better results could be obtained despite our intense opimization efforts. Nevertheless, these experiments laid excellent foundations for eventual success.

Synthesis of macrocyclic arylene ketone oligomers containing the phthaloyl moiety by Friedel-crafts acylation reaction

Two kinds of macrocyclic arylene ketone oligomers have been synthesized in high yield from phthaloyl dichloride and various bridge-linking electron-rich aromatic hydrocarbons via the modified Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction. The presence of a Lewis base in this reaction is demonstrated to be advantageous for forming macrocycle oligomers. These resultant oligomers can undergo melt ring-opening polymerization to give polymers with high T. and excellent thermal stability.

Synthesis, structure characterization and transesterification of the complexes of beta-alkoxycarbonylethyltin trichlorides

Thirteen title complexes ROCOCH2CH2SnCl3 . L(R = C(1 similar to 5)alkyl;L = DBSO,HMPA) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR,H-1 NMR. The crystal structure of n -PrOCOCH2CH2SnCl3 . DBSO was determined by the X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystal belongs to orthorhombic system,space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with a = 1.062, b = 1.427, c = 1.635nm; Z = 4. The complex exists as a discrete molecule, and the tin atom attains a distorted octahedral geometry via the coordination of intramolecular carbonyl oxygen and the Lewis base donor atom. The transesterification of CH3OCOCH2CH2SnCl3 . L with alcohol was studied, and the intramolecular Lewis acid catalytic mechanism was suggested.

Synthesis, structure characterization of the complexes of beta-alkoxycarbonylethyltin trichlorides with Schiff base ligands

Thirty - two title complexes (ROCOCHRCH2SnCl3)-C-1 . (2 - HOC6H4CH = NC6H4 - X) (R = Me, Et, n - Bu; R-1 = H, Me; X = H,4' - Cl, 3' - Pr, 3' - OH, 3', 4' - Cl-2, 4' - OMe) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis,UV - vis, IR, H-1 NMR. The crystal structure of n - BuOCOCH2CH2SnCl3 . (2 - HOC6H4CH - NC6H4OMe - 4') were determined by the X - ray diffraction analysis, The crystal belongs to monoclinic system, with a = 1.4661 (3)nm, b = 0.9307 (2)nm, c = 1.7888 (4)nm, beta = 94.04 (3)degrees, V = 2.4348nm(3), D-c = 1.581mg/m(3), Z = 4, F(000) = 1160, mu = 1.405mm(-1), R = 0.0354, R-w = 0,0486, space group: P2(1)/c. The complexes exist as a discrete monomer. The tin atom has a distorted octahedral geometry due to intramolecular coordination of the carbonyl oxygen and the phenolic oxygen of the Schiff base ligands, The coordination number of tin atom is 6.

Theoretical analysis for mechanical erosion of carbon-base materials in ablation

This article derives and provides a theoretical analysis for the mechanical erosion of carbon-base materials in ablation. The theory of mechanical erosion based on a nondimensional critical roughness parameter is proposed, The important parameters in this analytical method are independent of the test, The analysis accounts for the heating, pressure, and shear forces acting on material particles exposed to the boundary-layer flow. For the validity of a theoretical analytical method a computational example is given. The theoretical results agree fairly with the experimental data.

Structures on sliding base subject to horizontal and vertical motions

In this paper particular investigation is directed towards the combined effects of horizontal and vertical motions of real earthquakes to structures resting on sliding base. A simplified method is presented to treat the nonlinear effects of time dependent frictional force of the sliding base as a function of the vertical reaction produced by the foundation. As an example, the El Centro 1940 earthquake record is used on a structural model to show the structural responses due to a sliding base with different frictional and stiffness characteristics. The study shows that vertical ground motion does affect both the superstructure response and the base sliding displacement. Nevertheless, the sliding base isolator is shown to be effective for the reduction of seismic response of a superstructure.

In situ surface topography measurement method of granite base in scanning wafer stage with laser interferometer

Topography of a granite surface has an effect on the vertical positioning of a wafer stage in a lithographic tool, when the wafer stage moves on the granite. The inaccurate measurement of the topography results in a bad leveling and focusing performance. In this paper, an in situ method to measure the topography of a granite surface with high accuracy is present. In this method, a high-order polynomial is set up to express the topography of the granite surface. Two double-frequency laser interferometers are used to measure the tilts of the wafer stage in the X- and Y-directions. From the sampling tilts information, the coefficients of the high-order polynomial can be obtained by a special algorithm. Experiment results shows that the measurement reproducibility of the method is better than 10 nm. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Co-expression of CD173 (H2) and CD174 (Lewis Y) with CD44 suggests that fucosylated histo-blood group antigens are markers of breast cancer-initiating cells

Histo-blood group antigens CD173 (H2) and CD174 (Lewis Y) are known to be developmentally regulated carbohydrate antigens which are expressed to a varying degree on many human carcinomas. We hypothesized that they might represent markers of cancer-initiating cells (or cancer stem cells, CSC). In order to test this hypothesis, we examined the co-expression of CD173 and CD174 with stem cell markers CD44 and CD133 by flow cytometry analysis, immunocytochemistry, and immunohistochemistry on cell lines and tissue sections from breast cancer. In three breast cancer cell lines, the percentage of CD173(+)/CD44(+) cells ranged from 17% to > 60% and of CD174(+)/CD44(+) from 21% to 57%. In breast cancer tissue sections from 15 patients, up to 50% of tumor cells simultaneously expressed CD173, CD174, and CD44 antigens. Co-expression of CD173 and CD174 with CD133 was also observed, but to a lesser percentage. Co-immunoprecipitation and sandwich ELISA experiments on breast cancer cell lines suggested that CD173 and CD174 are carried on the CD44 molecule. The results show that in these tissues CD173 (H2) and CD174 (LeY) are associated with CD44 expression, suggesting that these carbohydrate antigens are markers of cancer-initiating cells or of early progenitors of breast carcinomas.