Publisher：Neurobiology of Disease  

Krabbe disease (KD), or globoid cell leukodystrophy, is an inherited lysosomal storage disease with leukodystrophy caused by a mutation in the galactosylceramidase (GALC) gene. The majority of patients show the early onset form of KD dominated by cerebral demyelination with apoptotic oligodendrocyte (OL) death. However, the initial pathophysiological changes in developing OLs remain poorly understood. Here, we show that OLs of twitcher mice, an authentic mouse model of KD, exhibited developmental defects and impaired myelin formation in vivo and in vitro. In twitcher mouse brain, abnormal myelination and reduced expression of myelin genes during the period of most active OL differentiation and myelination preceded subsequent progressive OL death and demyelination. Importantly, twitcher mouse OL precursor cells proliferated normally, but their differentiation and survival were intrinsically defective. These defects were associated with aberrant accumulation of endogenous psychosine (galactosylsphingosine) and reduced activation of the Erk1/2 and Akt/mTOR pathways before apoptotic cell death. Collectively, our results demonstrate that GALC deficiency in developing KD OLs profoundly affects their differentiation and maturation, indicating the critical contribution of OL dysfunction to KD pathogenesis.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nbd.2018.08.023

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Language：English   Publisher：Journal of Biological Chemistry  

Gangliosides (sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids) help regulate many important biological processes, including cell proliferation, signal transduction, and differentiation, via formation of functional microdomains in plasma membranes. The structural diversity of gangliosides arises from both the ceramide moiety and glycan portion. Recently, differing molecular species of a given ganglioside are suggested to have distinct biological properties and regulate specific and distinct biological events. Elucidation of the function of each molecular species is important and will provide new insights into ganglioside biology. Gangliosides are also suggested to be involved in skeletal muscle differentiation; however, the differential roles of ganglioside molecular species remain unclear. Here we describe striking changes in quantity and quality of gangliosides (particularly GM3)during differentiation of mouse C2C12 myoblast cells and key roles played by distinct GM3 molecular species at each step of the process.

DOI： 10.1074/jbc.M116.771253

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PubMed

Language：English   Publisher：Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology  

Sialic acids are a family of nine-carbon carboxylated sugars having a nonulosonate skeletal structure (Fig. 35.1). This structure is uniquely different from that of other sugar units of animal glycans. The most popular sialic acid is N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac), which is universally found on cell surface glycocalyx and in secreted glycoproteins of vertebrates and some invertebrates. Sialic acids have low acid-base dissociation constants and give a negative charge on the cell surface under a wide range of physiological pH. In nature, more than 50 kinds of sialic acids are known. Nearly all of them are derived from Neu5Ac by a substitution on the hydroxyl groups (e.g., O-acetyl-Neu5Ac) and/or a hydroxylation of the N-acetyl group (e.g., N-glycolylneuraminic acid, Neu5Gc). Each modified sialic acid has properties different from those of Neu5Ac and is believed to contribute to specific physiological functions. In animal cells, sialic acids are most frequently the terminal sugars of cell surface glycolipids and glycoproteins, and any change that occurs on sialic acids can considerably influence the biological properties of a cell. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

DOI： 10.1007/978-1-4419-7877-6_35

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Language：English   Publisher：Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications  

Hypoxia is a common characteristic of locally advanced tumors and cancer cells of high invasiveness and metastasis. We first demonstrate that hypoxic culture of human cancer HeLa, LS174T, and Caco-2 cells enhances the de novo synthesis of free sialic acids including deaminoneuraminic acid (Kdn), a unique sialic acid. Hypoxic cultures enhance expression of the N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) 9-phosphate synthetase (NPS) and phosphomannoisomerase (PMI) mRNAs and their enzymatic activities. In addition, incorporation of mannose (Man) into the cells is also enhanced. The elevated NPS activity facilitates the synthesis of Kdn as well as Neu5Ac, a typical sialic acid in human. The increased PMI activity, together with the enhanced Man-incorporation ability, leads to the increase of mannose 6-phosphate, which is a substrate of NPS, and subsequently results in the increased expression of Kdn, but not Neu5Ac. Kdn may thus be a target for diagnosis of cancers. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.bbrc.2007.03.181

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PubMed

Language：English   Publisher：Glycoconjugate Journal  

Deaminoneuraminic acid (KDN) is a unique member of the sialic acid family. We previously demonstrated that free KDN is synthesized de novo from mannose as its precursor sugar in trout testis, and that the amount of intracellular KDN increases in mouse B16 melanoma cells cultured in mannose-rich media [Angata et al. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 22949-56; Angata et al. (1999) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 261, 326-31]. In the present study, we first demonstrated a mannose-induced increase in intracellular KDN in various cultured mouse and human cell lines. These results led us to examine whether KDN expression in mouse organs is altered by exogenously administered mannose. Under normal feeding conditions, intracellular free KDN was present at very low levels (19-48 pmol/mg protein) in liver, spleen, and lung, and was not detected in kidney or brain. Oral ingestion of mannose, both short-term (90 min) and long-term (2 wk), resulted in an increase of intracellular KDN up to 60-81 pmol/mg protein in spleen and lung and 6.9-18 pmol/mg protein in kidney and brain; however, no change was observed in liver. The level of KDN in organs appears not to be determined only by the KDN 9-phosphate synthase activity, but might also be affected by other enzymes that utilize mannose 6-phosphate as a substrate as well as the enzymes that breakdown KDN, like KDN-pyruvate lyase. In blood, the detectable amount of free KDN did not change on oral ingestion of mannose. These findings indicate that mannose in the diet affects KDN metabolism in various organs, and provide clues to the mechanism of altered KDN expression in some tumor cells and aged organs. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006.

DOI： 10.1007/s10719-006-6734-z

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Publisher：American Journal of Pathology  

Distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles (DMRV), is an autosomal recessive disorder with early adult onset, displays distal dominant muscular involvement and is characterized by the presence of numerous rimmed vacuoles in the affected muscle fibers. The pathophysiology of DMRV has not been clarified yet, although the responsible gene was identified as that encoding UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase involved hi the biosynthesis of sialic acids. To identify defective carbohydrate moieties of muscular glycoproteins from DMRV patients, frozen skeletal muscle sections from seven patients with DMRV, as well as normal and pathological controls, were treated with or without sialidase or N-glycosidase F followed by lectin staining and lectin blotting analysis. The sialic acid contents of the O-glycans in the skeletal muscle specimens from the DMRV patients were also measured. We found that Arachis hypogaea agglutinin (PNA) lectin reacted strongly with sarcolemmal glycoproteins in the DMRV patients but not with those in control subjects. α-Dystroglycan from the DMRV patients strongly associated with PNA lectin, although that from controls did not. The sialic acid level of the O-glycans in the DMRV muscular glycoproteins with molecular weights of 30 to 200 kd was reduced to 60 to 80% of the control level. The results show that impaired sialyl O-glycan formation in muscular glycoproteins, including α-dystroglycan, occurs in DMRV.

DOI： 10.1016/S0002-9440(10)62332-2

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