Modifications to chromosomal proteins help ensure that brain-specific sugars are produced only in appropriate tissues

The ß1,6-branched O-mannosyl glycan appears only in the mammalian brain. Naoyuki Taniguchi’s team at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako recently characterized the enzyme, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IX (GnT-IX, also called GnT-Vb) that produces this particular glycan variant1 (Fig. 1). “We knew that some glycan-synthesizing enzymes are expressed in restricted tissues, but did not know how they are expressed,” says Yasuhiko Kizuka, a researcher in Taniguchi’s laboratory. “This led us to investigate how GnT-IX is specifically expressed in the brain.” 

Many genes are regulated by so-called ‘epigenetic mechanisms’, in which gene expression is modulated via modification of the histone protein scaffold that supports chromosomal DNA, and the researchers began by examining this possibility. When histone proteins undergo a modification known as acetylation, nearby genes are typically activated; conversely, removal of this acetylation has an inhibitory effect. 

Taniguchi and colleagues determined that the gene encoding GnT-IX is typically maintained in an inactive, non-acetylated state in 3T3-L1, a cell line derived from the fibroblasts that form connective tissue. However, when the researchers treated these cells with a drug that promotes histone acetylation, they strongly expressed GnT-IX. The brain tumor-derived Neuro2A cell line, however, naturally expresses high levels of GnT-IX. The researchers found that these cells normally maintain the chromatin near this gene in a state that stimulates activation.

In subsequent experiments, Kizuka and Taniguchi not only identified specific DNA sequences that directly regulate GnT-IX activity, but also two proteins that bind to these sites to drive expression. They found one of these factors, CTCF, in both 3T3-L1 and Neuro2A cells, but its recruitment to the GnT-IX gene was far stronger under the favorable histone modification conditions found in the latter cells. 

Intriguingly, a preliminary screen of four other glycosylation enzymes suggested that similar mechanisms govern their tissue-specificity. “Our work suggests that expression of many other glyco-genes could be regulated epigenetically,” says Kizuka.

In future studies, the researchers intend to explore how this regulatory mechanism plays into the bigger picture of glycan function. “Our group has been trying to elucidate the ‘glycan cycle’—how glycans are dynamically synthesized, play diverse roles and are degraded—using a systems biology approach,” says Kizuka. “This work tells us that epigenetic regulation is a part of this cycle.”

More information: Kizuka, Y., et al. Brain-specific expression of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IX (GnT-IX) is regulated by epigenetic histone modifications. The Journal of Biological Chemistry published online, 19 July 2011. doi: 10.1074/jbc/M111.251173

Provided by RIKEN (news : web)

Controlling cells' environments: A step toward building much-needed tissues and organs

 

With stem cells so fickle and indecisive that they make Shakespeare’s Hamlet pale by comparison, scientists today described an advance in encouraging stem cells to make decisions about their fate. The technology for doing so, reported here at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), is an advance toward using stem cells in “regenerative medicine” -- to grow from scratch organs for transplants and tissues for treating diseases.

“Stem cells have great potential in regenerative medicine, in developing new drugs and in advancing biomedical research,” said Laura L. Kiessling, Ph.D., who presented the report. “To exploit that potential, we need two things: first, reproducible methods to grow human stem cells in the laboratory, and second, the ability to make stem cells grow into heart cells, brain cells or whatever kind of cell. Our technology takes a different approach to both of these problems, and the results are very encouraging.”

Biologically, so-called pluripotent human embryonic stem cells have not made up their minds about what to become. That’s essential because these cells, which are derived from embryos, have the agility to develop into the hundreds of different kinds of cells in a fully-formed human body. But controlling their differentiation has also stood as a major barrier to making the stem cell dream come true and using these all-purpose cells in medicine.

Past approaches to growing and scripting the fate of stem cells have involved adding growth-regulating and other substances to cultures of stem cells growing in the laboratory. These conditions left scientists guessing about exactly what wound up in the stem cells. Kiessling and colleagues are pioneering a new approach that involves using chemically controlled surfaces.

Kiessling previously developed chemically modified plastic and glass surfaces that take much of the guess work out of growing stem cells in laboratory cultures. In the past, scientists grew stem cells on surfaces that contained mouse cells. That left scientists with nagging questions about possible contamination of stem cells with disease-causing animal viruses — a stumbling block for using stem cells in potential medical applications. And that growth system was what scientists term “undefined.” There were variations from batch to batch of mouse cells, and scientists never really knew what the stem cells were coming into contact with and how it might be changing them. The synthetic, chemically-defined, surfaces ended that uncertainty. The approach was inexpensive, simple and a much-needed advance in producing stem cells, Kiessling explained.

With the ability to grow stem cells on the synthetic surfaces under chemically defined, or known, conditions, Kiessling’s group took an additional step in their latest research. It found that chemically defined surfaces can exert control over signaling pathways. “Signaling” is how molecules talk to one another and get things done inside a cell. It’s how an immune cell knows to fight an infection or how a pancreatic cell determines that more insulin is needed in the bloodstream, for example. By controlling how molecules inside a stem cell communicate, researchers could someday in the future nudge them to become one type of cell or tissue over another.

To see whether a new chemically defined surface could change signaling in a pilot experiment, Kiessling tested cancer cells. The research involved use of a signaling substance, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), which controls a range of activities, from cell growth to self-destruction.

“The new surfaces give scientists much more control over cells, opening up a wide range of possible future applications,” Kiessling explained. Building directly on the results of the pilot study, the surfaces could have applications in wound healing. TGF- beta can help wounds heal, but if it touches healthy skin, inflammation or even a cancerous tumor could develop. “We haven’t done this, but you could imagine a bandage that has a localized concentration of the special peptide surface that would recruit TGF-beta just to the wound site,” said Kiessling.

The surfaces also could make it easier to manufacture organs and tissues in the laboratory someday. “We think that this strategy, with different sets of peptides (building blocks of proteins) bound to the surface, could direct certain human embryonic stem cells on the surface to become one type of cell and other stem cells to become a second cell type, right next to each other. For the tissue engineering involved in growing replacement organs, you need to organize specialized cells in particular ways like this.”

Provided by American Chemical Society (news : web)

Molecular muscle: Small parts of a big protein play key roles in building tissues

 

We all know the adage: A little bit of a good thing can go a long way. Now researchers in London are reporting that might also be true for a large protein associated with wound healing.

The team at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College reports in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that a protein generated when the body is under stress, such as in cases of physical trauma or disease, can affect how the protective housing that surrounds each cell develops. What's more, they say, tiny pieces of that protein may one day prove useful in preventing the spread of tumors or fibrosis.

At just 174 nanometers in diameter, tenascin-C is pretty big in the world of proteins, and it looks a lot like a spider with six legs, which are about 10 times longer than its body. Thanks to those long legs, tenascin-C can do real heavy lifting when it comes to wound healing.

"Tenascin-C plays many roles in the response to tissue injury, including, first of all, initiating an immune response and, later, ensuring proper tissue rebuilding," explains Kim Midwood, who oversaw the project.

When the injury alarm is rung, tenascin-C shows up on the scene and attaches to another protein, fibronectin. Together, tenascin-C and fibronectin help to construct the housing, or extracellular matrix, that surrounds each cell.

"The extracellular matrix is the home in which the cells of your body reside: It provides shelter and nutrients and also sends signals to the cell to tell it how to behave," says Midwood. "To make a finished tissue, the matrix must be carefully built."

Tenascin-C's job is a temporary one. When your hand is cut, for example, it appears at the edges of the wound and then goes away when scar tissue develops, says postdoctoral research associate Wing To: "Tenascin-C is thought to play a major role during the rebuilding phase of tissue injury by promoting regeneration of tissue that has been damaged."

If the extracellular matrix were a construction site, tenascin-C could be seen as the scaffold upon which the weaving of fibronectin threads, or fibrils, is done. "Tenascin-C has multiple arms, and we have shown that it has multiple binding sites for fibronectin," Midwood says. "In this way, it can bind to many fibronectin fibrils at once and help to form the whole tissue by linking the fibrils together. Then, when the repair is done, the scaffolding is taken down."

Midwood and To systematically determined where tenascin-C and fibronectin bind together. They also identified small parts of tenascin-C, known as domains, that can bind to only one fibronectin fibril apiece.

"The small domains act as caps of the scaffold. No more fibronectin fibrils can bind once these caps are in place," Midwood says. So, in essence, they found that certain pieces of tenascin-C determine when fibril building should stop once enough, but not too much, tissue is made.

The findings could be especially useful for creating therapies for conditions in which there is aberrant extracellular matrix deposition, such as in cancers, fibrotic conditions or chronic non-healing wounds, adds To.

In abnormal conditions, such as in the case of a tumor cell, "the home that's made of fibronectin helps it to survive, shelters it and provides signals that enable it to proliferate," says Midwood. "As the tumor thrives, the home keeps on growing, expanding to destroy the existing neighborhood."

Similarly, in fibrotic diseases, tissue rebuilding rages out of control – with too much fibronectin assembly – so that it takes over the whole affected organ, Midwood says.

"In the end, we found that tenascin-C has both stop and go functions cleverly concealed in the same molecule," Midwood says. "The large spiderlike protein may provide a scaffold for building, and the small domains of the protein block excess building. Small domains may be therapeutically useful in situations where too much fibronectin drives disease."

If certain domains can stop uncontrolled matrix deposition in conditions where there is an increase in unwanted extracellular matrix, such as in fibrosis, then they could be useful tools for controlling such diseases.

Meanwhile, To says, in conditions with high levels of tenascin-C degradation by enzymes, for example in nonhealing chronic wounds, that may expose active tenascin-C domains, "if we can stop the production of these domains during disease progression with specific inhibitors, maybe we could help ameliorate the condition.

Similarly we could try and get the cells to make tenascin-C variants that are not as easily broken down by enzymes to help facilitate wound healing."

More information: Midwood and To's paper was named a "Paper of the Week" by the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Provided by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology