The molecular nature and possible presence of a glycan-phosphatidylinositol anchor (GPI-anchor) in CA125 molecules was investigated. Serial lectin affinity chromatography and N- or O-glycanase treatment to reduce antigenicity showed that CA125 contained certain N- and O-glycosylated sugar chains in the molecule, like a glycoprotein. CA125 released from ovarian cancer tissues increased time-dependently following phosphatidylino-sitol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) treatment, concomitant with the release of tissue-unspecific alkaline phosphatase. Western blotting of CA125 treated by PI-PLC showed a single band of 90 kD instead of the 162- and 76-kD bands of the native antigen. Further, ovarian cancer tissues subjected to PI-PLC treatment lost the immunohistochemical localization of CA125 with OC125 antibody. Consequently, it is strongly suggested that CA125 is a glycoprotein that has both N- and O-linked sugar chains and a membranous GPI-anchoring moiety, and further, that its 90-kD form is the antigen without the GPI-anchor.