Deficient phosphorylation of mannose residues of mannan in fibroblasts of patients with mucolipidoses II and III

The effects of sucrose loading on lysosomal hydrolases

The addition of 88 mM sucrose to the culture medium of human skin fibroblasts from normal subjects caused remarkable increase in the intracellular lysosomal hydrolase activities. The mechanism of this induction by sucrose loading was carefully studied with several fibroblast strains of different inherited lysosomal storage disorders. In single lysosomal hydrolase defect such as GM1-gangliosidosis, mannosidosis and Sandhoff disease, no induction of the deficient hydrolase was found with 88 mM sucrose loading. In contrast, sucrose loading caused normalization of intracellular lysosomal hydrolase activities in I-cell disease fibroblasts and cytoplasmic inclusion materials disappeared. Subsequent investigations reveal that I-cell disease cells are classified into three subgroups by the degree of hydrolase induction by sucrose loading; a high responding, an intermediate responding and a no-response group. The heterogeneity may be based upon different induction by sucrose loading of the enzyme, probably the residual phosphotransferase which is involved in the processing steps of lysosomal enzyme molecules. With the addition of mannose-6-phosphate and 10 mM NH4Cl to cultured skin fibroblasts, it was shown that sucrose loading caused increased synthesis of lysosomal enzyme proteins. The result of the test with 2,4-dinitrophenol suggests that sucrose is indeed pinocytosed by cultured human skin fibroblasts and localized in lysosomes and that this event is the essential factor to trigger the induction of lysosomal hydrolases. Simultaneous loading of both invertase and sucrose in cultured cells caused no induction of alpha-mannosidase activity. This result indicates that invertase is also pinocytosed, reaches the lysosomes and hydrolyzes sucrose in the lysosomes. Lysosomal overloading with sucrose resulted in induction of lysosomal hydrolases and invertase blocked the induction of alpha-mannosidase activity. However, some induction still exists in beta-galactosidase and alpha-fucosidase activity. Thus it is very likely that the induction of lysosomal hydrolases demands a complicated process. In this article, we investigated the effects of sucrose on the lysosomal hydrolases in cultured human skin fibroblasts of several inherited lysosomal storage disorders and normal subjects and discuss the possible mechanism of the induction of lysosomal hydrolase activities by sucrose loading.

Km defect in neuraminidase of dysmorphic type sialidosis with and without beta-galactosidase deficiency

Kinetic studies of 4-methylumbelliferyl neuraminidase activity were carried out in cultured skin fibroblasts from patients with various disorders of neuraminidase deficiency. Cell extracts from two patients with dysmorphic type sialidosis of infantile onset, with isolated deficiency of neuraminidase activity, and three patients with dysmorphic type sialidosis of juvenile onset, with combined deficiency of neuraminidase and beta-galactosidase activities, demonstrated 7-12 times higher apparent Km values than those of normal controls (1.0-1.5 mmol/l as compared with 0.12-0.15 mmol/l). The apparent Ki values for N-acetylneuraminic acid and colominic acid were also increased in the dysmorphic type (7-15 and 7-11 times the normal values, respectively). In contrast, in the normomorphic type, normal apparent Km and Ki values were found for 4-methylumbelliferyl neuraminidase activity in fibroblasts from one patient with isolated neuraminidase deficiency and two patients with combined deficiency of neuraminidase and beta-galactosidase. The altered kinetics in the dysmorphic cases indicates a primary defect in neuraminidase with a secondary deficiency of beta-galactosidase in patients with combined deficiency. It is not clear if the primary defect in the normomorphic cases involves a defect in neuraminidase other than a Km defect or if neuraminidase or both neuraminidase and beta-galactosidase deficiencies are secondary to another defect as yet undetermined.

Catalytically defective ganglioside neuraminidase in mucolipidosis IV

Cultured skin fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis IV were found to be deficient in neuraminidase activity toward GD1a and GD1b gangliosides radiolabelled in C8 and C7 analogs of their sialic acid residues. Neuraminidase activities toward 4-methylumbelliferyl-N-acetyl-neuraminic acid, neuraminlactose, and radiolabelled neuraminlactitol, fetuin and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein were within the range of normal controls. Fibroblasts from parents of patients with mucolipidosis IV demonstrated intermediate levels of ganglioside neuraminidase activity and normal levels of glycoprotein neuraminidase activity. The residual acidic neuraminidase activity toward GD1a ganglioside in the patients' fibroblasts did not differ from that of controls in its pH optimum and thermostability, but had an abnormal apparent Km which was about 18 times higher than that of the normal enzyme. These findings suggest that mucolipidosis IV is a ganglioside sialidosis due to a catalytically defective ganglioside neuraminidase.

Fibroblasts from patients with I-cell disease and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy are deficient in uridine 5'-diphosphate-N-acetylglucosamine: glycoprotein N-acetylglucosaminylphosphotransferase activity

Newly synthesized acid hydrolases, destined for transport to lysosomes, acquire a phosphomannosyl targeting signal by the transfer of N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphate from uridine 5'-diphosphate (UDP)-N-acetylglucosamine to a mannose residue of the acid hydrolase followed by removal of the outer, phosphodiester-linked N-acetylglucosamine to expose 6-phosphomannose. This study demonstrates that fibroblasts from patients with the lysosomal enzyme storage diseases, I-cell disease (mucolipidosis II) and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy (mucolipidosis III), are severely deficient in UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:glycoprotein N-acetylglucosaminylphosphotransferase, the first enzyme of the sequence. The N-acetylglucosaminylphosphotransferase activity (assayed using endogenous acceptors) in cultures from six normal subjects ranged from 0.67 to 1.46 pmol N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate transferred/mg protein per h, whereas five pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy and five I-cell disease cultures transferred less than 0.02 pmol/mg protein per h. The activity in five other pseudo-Hurler cultures ranged from 0.02 to 0.27 pmol transferred/mg protein per h. The activity of alpha-N-acetylglucosaminyl phosphodiesterase, the enzyme responsible for phosphomonoester exposure, is normal or elevated in cultured fibroblasts from both I-cell disease and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy patients. The deficiency of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:glycoprotein N-acetylglucosaminylphosphotransferase explains the biochemical abnormalities previously observed in I-cell disease and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy.