ISSN:
1573-4986
Keywords:
apoptosis
;
fucosylated carbohydrate antigens
;
fucosyltransferases
;
FACS analysis
;
Northern blot
;
RT-PCR
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
Abstract We studied changes in the carbohydrate expression following apoptotic cell death induced by treatment with interferon (IFN)-γ and anti-Fas antibody using human colon adenocarcinoma HT-29 cells. An apoptotic cell death of HT-29 accompanied with typical DNA fragmentation was observed when the cells were cultured sequentially with IFN-γ and anti-Fas antibody. In flow cytometric analyses, the expression of Lex and Ley antigen was strongly and slightly enhanced, respectively, on the cell surface in accordance with the apoptosis. When the fucosyltransferase (Fuc-T) activities of the lysates from the treated cells were examined relative to those from untreated cells, a 2.5-fold increase of α(1,3)-Fuc-T activities and a slight increase of α(1,2)-Fuc-T activities were observed, but little or no increase of α(1,4)-Fuc-T activity was detected. In Northern blot analyses using probes for Fuc-T III, IV, V, VI and VII genes, strong RNA messages for Fuc-T III, V and/or VI and a weak RNA message for Fuc-T IV were detected in the untreated HT-29 cells. On the other hand, in the treated cells, the messages for Fuc-T III, V and/or VI were found to almost disappear and the 2.3 kb message for Fuc-T IV was observed to elevate 2.8-fold. Therefore, we suggest that the strongly increased expression of Lex antigen found on the HT-29 cell surface might be involved in the process of apoptosis, and that the enhancement of the antigen expression seems to result from the increased activity of α(1,3)-Fuc-T encoded mainly by the Fuc-T IV gene.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01053198
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