Core3 Glycan as Tumor Suppressor

Study of the biological functions of mucin type core 3 O-glycans

Core 3 O-glycan is very short glycan structure which is composed of one N-acetylglucosamine and one N-acetylgalactosamine. The core 3 O-glycan structure is synthesized by core3 synthase (beta 1, 3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase 6) using UDP-N-acetylglucosamine as substrate. We revealed that the core 3 O-glycan structure modulates prostate cancer formation and gastrointestinal cell differentiation through regulating the heterodimerization of α2β1 integrin and cell surface expression of differentiation marker proteins respectively. This chapter describes the way to determine the functions of core 3 O-glycan in tumor formation and gastrointestinal cell differentiation.

One-pot characterization of cancer cells by the analysis of mucin-type glycans and glycosaminoglycans

We developed an automated apparatus for rapid releasing of O-glycans from mucin-type glycoproteins [Anal. Biochem. 371 (2007) 52-61; Anal. Chem. 82 (2010) 7436-7443] and applied the device to analyze them in some cancer cell lines [J. Proteome Res. 8 (2009) 521-537]. We also found that the device is useful to release glycosaminoglycans from proteoglycans [Anal. Biochem. 362 (2007) 245-251]. Based on these studies, we developed a method for one-pot analysis of mucin-type glycans and glycosaminoglycans after releasing them from total protein pool obtained from some cancer cell lines. Mucin-type glycans were analyzed by a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques, and glycosaminoglycans were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis as fluorescent-labeled unsaturated disaccharides after digestion with specific eliminases followed by fluorescent labeling. Ten cancer cell lines, including blood cancer cells as well as epithelial cancer cells, were used to assess the method. The results clearly revealed that both mucin-type glycans and glycosaminoglycans showed quite interesting profiles. Thus, the current technique will be a powerful tool for discovery of glycan markers of diseases.