Synthesis of sialoglycoconjugates during dimethylsulfoxide-induced erythrodifferentiation of friend leukemia cells

Synergistic effect of dimethyl sulfoxide on glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1)-stimulated insulin secretion and gene transcription in INS-1 cells: characterization and implications

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is an incretin hormone that is secreted from the enteroendocrine L-cells of the gut in response to nutrient ingestion. GLP-1 enhances both insulin secretion and insulin gene expression in a glucose-dependent manner via activation of its putative G-protein-coupled receptor on pancreatic beta-cells. In the presence of DMSO (0.5-2.5%), these functional responses were enhanced significantly (2- to 2.5-fold) in a concentration-dependent manner in the beta-cell line INS-1, although basal levels were not affected. Rat insulin 1 (rINS1) promoter activity appeared to be augmented in a cAMP-response element (CRE)-dependent manner as the effect of DMSO was abolished following a mutation in the CRE of the rINS1 promoter. Also, expression of a generic cAMP-driven reporter gene was enhanced by 1.5% DMSO in response to GLP-1 (3.5-fold), forskolin (2-fold), and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (2-fold). Analysis of intracellular signaling components revealed that DMSO did not elevate cAMP levels, protein kinase A activity, or phosphorylated levels of CRE-binding protein (CREB), CRE-modulator (CREM), and activating transcription factor-1 (ATF-1). These data suggest that GLP-1 induces insulin gene transcription in a CREB, CREM, and ATF-1-independent manner in beta-cells. The mechanism by which DMSO imparts this amplifying action is unclear but may involve redistribution of intracellular compartments or a direct molecular interaction with a downstream target of the GLP-1 receptor signaling pathway in the beta-cell. These effects of DMSO on incretin action may provide novel applications with respect to further characterizing GLP-1 receptor signaling, identifying incretin-like compounds in screening assays, and as a therapeutic treatment in type 2 diabetes.

Metabolic delivery of ketone groups to sialic acid residues. Application To cell surface glycoform engineering

The development of chemical strategies for decorating cells with defined carbohydrate epitopes would greatly facilitate studies of carbohydrate-mediated cell surface interactions. This report describes a general strategy for engineering the display of chemically defined oligosaccharides on cell surfaces that combines the concepts of metabolic engineering and selective chemical reactivity. Using a recently described method (Mahal, L. K., Yarema, K. J., and Bertozzi, C. R. (1997) Science 276, 1125-1128), we delivered a uniquely reactive ketone group to endogenous cell surface sialic acid residues by treating cells with the ketone-bearing metabolic precursor N-levulinoylmannosamine (ManLev). The ketone undergoes highly selective condensation reactions with complementary nucleophiles such as aminooxy and hydrazide groups. The detailed quantitative parameters of ManLev metabolism in human and nonhuman-derived cell lines were determined to establish a foundation for the modification of cell surfaces with novel epitopes at defined cell-surface densities. Ketones within the glycoconjugates on ManLev-treated cells were then reacted with synthetic aminooxy and hydrazide-functionalized carbohydrates. The remodeled cells were endowed with novel lectin binding profiles as determined by flow cytometry analysis. The simplicity and generality of this method make it well suited for use in the study of carbohydrate-mediated cell surface interactions.

Pharmacology of DMSO

A wide range of primary pharmacological actions of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has been documented in laboratory studies: membrane penetration, membrane transport, effects on connective tissue, anti-inflammation, nerve blockade (analgesia), bacteriostasis, diuresis, enhancement or reduction of the effectiveness of other drugs, cholinesterase inhibition, nonspecific enhancement of resistance to infection, vasodilation, muscle relaxation, antagonism to platelet aggregation, and influence on serum cholesterol in experimental hypercholesterolemia. This substance induces differentiation and function of leukemic and other malignant cells. DMSO also has prophylactic radioprotective properties and cryoprotective actions. It protects against ischemic injury.

Metabolic labeling of sialic acids in tissue culture cell lines: methods to identify substituted and modified radioactive neuraminic acids

The parent sialic acid N-acetylneuraminic acid can be modified or substituted in various ways, giving rise to a family of more than 25 compounds. The definitive identification of these compounds has previously required isolation of nanomole amounts for mass spectrometry or NMR. We have explored the possibility of using the known metabolic precursors of the sialic acids, particularly N-acetyl-[6-3H]mannosamine, to label and identify various forms of sialic acids in tissue culture cells. Firstly, we defined several variables that affect the labeling of sialic acids with N-acetyl-[6-3H]mannosamine. Secondly, we have devised a simple screening method to identify cell lines that synthesize substituted or modified sialic acids. We next demonstrate that it is possible to definitively identify the natures of the various labeled sialic acids without the use of mass spectrometry, even though they are present only in tracer amounts. The methods used include paper chromatography, analytical de-O-acetylation, periodate release of the 9-3H as [3H]formaldehyde (which is subsequently converted to a specific 3H-labeled chromophore), acylneuraminate pyruvate lyase treatment with identification of [3H]acylmannosamines, gas-liquid chromatography with radioactive detection, and two new high-pressure liquid chromatography methods utilizing the amine-adsorption:ion suppression and ion-pair principles. The use of an internal N-acetyl-[4-14C]neuraminic acid standard in each of these methods assures precision and accuracy. The combined use of these methods now allows the identification of radioactive tracer amounts of the various types of sialic acids in well-defined populations of tissue culture cells; it may also allow the identification of hitherto unknown forms of sialic acids.

Carbohydrate structure in tumor immunity

Researchers have endeavored to define surface alterations associated with neoplasia for at least 25 years. In comparisons of normal tissues with animal and human tumors, cultured cells before and after transformation with oncogenic agents, tumorigenic and nontumorigenic transformed cells, metastatic and nonmetastatic tumor cells, high- and low-metastatic variants, and tumor cells before and after induction of differentiation to a less malignant phenotype, a consistent finding has been some form of alteration in surface carbohydrate structures. These changes in glycolipids, glycoproteins and glycosaminoglycans are reviewed, and their structures are illustrated. Both nucleotide sugar biosynthesis and glycosyltransferase changes have been associated with these alterations. In some cases, alterations in transformed cells were related to growth, rather than transformation. In others, the altered glycoconjugates are truly tumor-associated. There is evidence that cell surface glycoconjugates may function in growth control. Altered carbohydrate structures could also serve as receptors for growth promoting factors and be directly responsible for altered growth control. Recent studies with monoclonal antibodies indicate that the vast majority of antibodies recognizing tumor-associated antigens are detecting altered carbohydrate structures. Mechanisms by which the immune system can recognize these carbohydrate structures are considered, and immune recognition of tumor-associated carbohydrate structural alterations is explored. A number of these hypotheses relating to alterations in glycosylation, growth control, and tumor immunity deserve further investigation.

Regeneration of membrane sialic acid after neuraminidase treatment of leukemic granulocytes

Granulocytes from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) were studied for their ability to regenerate surface sialic acid following treatment with Vibrio cholera neuraminidase (VCN) in vitro. Immediately after neuraminidase treatment, CML and normal granulocytes showed similar incorporation of radioactivity after surface labelling with sodium periodate/potassium-H3-borohydride (PI/BH3(4)). CML granulocytes treated with neuraminidase then incubated for 18 h in nutrient medium showed strikingly increased PI/BH3(4) labelling, usually greater than initial pretreatment values, consistent with a rapid reappearance of sialic acid in the cell membrane. This pattern was not seen in normal granulocytes. The aberrant regeneration of sialic acid in CML granulocytes in vitro could be inhibited by addition of 3 X 10(-6) M retinoic acid, suggesting either a direct effect on membrane glycoconjugate synthesis or an association with granulocyte differentiation.

Modification of sialic acid metabolism of murine erythroleukemia cells by analogs of N-acetylmannosamine

Two analogs of N-acetylmannosamine, 2-acetamido-1,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-2-deoxy-D-mannopyranose (Ac4-NAcMan) and the 2-trifluoroacetamido derivative (AC4F3-NAcMan), were synthesized as potential inhibitors of the formation of sialic acid-containing glycoconjugates and were examined for their ability to modify the incorporation of N-[3H]acetylamannosamine into cellular glycoconjugates of Friend murine erythroleukemia cells. Ac4F3-NAcMan and Ac4-NAcMan inhibited cellular replication in suspension culture at concentrations of 0.02 and 0.08 mM, respectively. The cytotoxicity of Ac4-NAcMan was relatively reversible, whereas that produced by Ac4-F3-NAcMan was not, as judged by measurement of the cloning efficiencies of cells exposed to these agents. The analogs inhibited incorporation of N-[3H]acetylmannosamine into ethanol-soluble and -insoluble materials. Separation of ethanol-soluble metabolites by HPLC demonstrated that Ac4F3-NAcMan caused accumulation of radioactivity from N-[3H]acetylmannosamine in CMP-N-acetylneuraminic acid (CMP-NeuNAc) equal to the decrease in macromolecular-bound 3H caused by this agent. In contrast, similar exposure to Ac4-NAcMan produced a large increase in the amount of radioactivity in ethanol-soluble N-acetylneuraminic acid while decreasing the amount of label from N-[3H]acetylmannosamine in cellular CMP-NeuNAc, suggesting that the analogs differ in their biochemical sites of action. Treatment of cells with either analog increased the amount of neuraminidase-hydrolyzable sialic acid-like material on the cell surface; this appeared to be due to the incorporation of the analogs into cellular glycoconjugates, since incubation of cells with 3H-labeled analogs resulted in the appearance of radioactivity in cellular ethanol-insoluble and neuraminidase-hydrolyzable material. Incubation of cells with Ac4-NAcMan labeled with 14C in the 4-O-acetyl group further demonstrated that incorporation occurred with approx. 50% retention of this substituent. Thus, both the amount and the nature of the surface sialic acid constituents of treated cells were altered, suggesting that these or similar analogs could potentially be used to modify cellular membrane function.

The in vitro and in vivo effects of dimethyl sulfoxide on the pituitary secretion of growth hormone and prolactin in mice

Anterior pituitaries from primiparous lactating C3H/He mice cultured in the medium containing 0.1% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) for 48 hours and pituitaries from lactating mice given subcutaneous injections of 0.05 ml DMSO twice daily for two days and once on the morning of the third day were used in the studies of the in vitro and the in vivo effects of DMSO, respectively. Phosphate buffer saline was used in the control. Synthesis and release of growth hormone and prolactin were estimated by the incorporation of [14C]leucine into each hormone during three hours' incubation of the pituitaries pre-exposed to DMSO or PBS. The values in the medium represented released hormone and sum of the values in the medium and the pituitary represented the synthesized hormone. DMSO stimulated synthesis of GH and synthesis and release of prolactin in vitro. Meanwhile, in the vivo study, synthesis of GH and prolactin were lower in the DMSO-injected mice than in the control. The results suggest that the effects of DMSO on the pituitary secretion of GH and prolactin are adverse in vitro and in vivo. In vivo exposure of pituitary to DMSO resulted in the suppression of lactation.

Induction of leukemia cell differentiation by chemotherapeutic agents

The antineoplastic agents marcellomycin (and related anthracycline antibiotics) and 6-thioguanine are effective inducers of the differentiation of cultured leukemia cells. Studies designed to investigate the relationship between structure and activity conducted with the anthracyclines in HL-60 human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells indicated a dissociation between cytotoxicity and maturation-inducing properties of these agents. In an analogous manner, 6-thioguanine induced effective erythroid and granulocytic differentiation of Friend and HL-60 leukemias, respectively, only in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficient cells. These findings suggest that 6-thioguanine need not be metabolized to a nucleotide to be active as an inducer of differentiation, and that the concentration of the 6-thiopurine required to initiate the commitment to maturation is greater than that producing cytotoxicity. Erythrodifferentiation of HGPRT negative Friend murine leukemia cells by 6-thioguanine was antagonized by tetracaine, d, 1-propranolol and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate, providing evidence for a cell membrane mediated component in the action of the purine antimetabolite. This suggests that the biochemical events that produce differentiation after exposure to 6-thioguanine may differ from those responsible for the toxic actions of the drug. Studies such as these, designed to gain an understanding of the target sites of inducers of differentiation, may lead to the development of new agents of potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of certain forms of cancer based on the conversion of malignant cells to their non-proliferating mature counterparts.

Changes in the glycoprotein composition of plasma membrane during the differentiation of friend erythroleukemia cells

Friend erythroleukemia cells display transient and permanent changes in the composition of their plasma membrane-bound glycoproteins during dimethyl sulfoxide-induced differentiation. The transient changes, as revealed by metabolic labeling with [14C]glucosamine, are most conspicuous around the time during which most cells become committed to terminal differentiation. Permanent changes are revealed by reductive tritiation after oxidation with NaIO4 or galactose oxidase. In differentiated cells one glycoprotein fraction (Mr 150 000) could not be labeled by any of these methods, although it does contain neuraminic acid. We found no evidence in support of the hypothesis that the anomalous behavior of this fraction is caused by an increased degree of O-acetylated neuraminic acid in the plasma membrane of differentiated cells.