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M Cantz

Publications and source records attributed to M Cantz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Lysosomal and plasma membrane ganglioside GM3 sialidases of cultured human fibroblasts. Differentiation by detergents and inhibitors.

Cultured human fibroblasts contain two sialidases that degrade gangliosides such as GM3: a lysosomal activity that appears identical with the activity towards water-soluble substrates and that is deficient in the genetic lysosomal disorder sialidosis, and another enzyme that seems localized on the external surface of the plasma membrane. In this report we show that both enzymes can be differentiated in the presence of each other by choice of the detergent used for activation, and also by the inhibitory action of some polyanionic compounds such as sulphated glycosaminoglycans. The lysosomal ganglioside GM3 sialidase is greatly stimulated by sodium glycodeoxycholate and, to lesser degrees, by sodium glycocholate and sodium cholate. The ganglioside GM3 sialidase of the plasma membrane is not measurably active under the conditions of the lysosomal enzyme but is specifically activated by the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100. The glycodeoxycholate-stimulated, but not the Triton-activated, ganglioside GM3 sialidase activity was profoundly diminished in cell lines from patients with the lysosomal disorders sialidosis and galactosialidosis; however, both activities were normal in fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis IV, previously thought to be a ganglioside sialidase deficiency disorder. Both the lysosomal and the plasma membrane ganglioside GM3 sialidases were inhibited by sialic acids, suramin, dextran sulphate and sulphated glycosaminoglycans. Among the latter, heparin and heparan sulphate showed a much higher inhibitory potency towards the plasma membrane ganglioside GM3 sialidase than towards the lysosomal onw.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Carbohydrate Metabolism, Inborn Errors

Disorders of glycoprotein degradation.

The intracellular degradation of glycoproteins occurs predominantly in the lysosomes through the concerted action of proteases and glycosidases. Genetic defects in any of the enzymes cleaving the oligosaccharide side chains lead to specific diseases because of an excessive lysosomal accumulation of partially degraded material, mostly oligosaccharides. This paper presents an overview of the biochemistry and the clinical spectrum of this group of diseases including sialidosis, galactosialidosis, alpha- and beta-mannosidosis, fucosidosis, aspartylglucosaminuria, and alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase deficiency (Schindler disease). In addition, the sialic acid storage disorder (Salla disease) which is caused by a defect in the lysosomal transport of this acidic monosaccharide is included because of functional and clinical correlations.

Carbohydrate Conformation

Ganglioside GM3 sialidase activity in fibroblasts of normal individuals and of patients with sialidosis and mucolipidosis IV. Subcellular distribution and and some properties.

Sensitive assays for the determination of the ganglioside sialidase activity of fibroblast homogenates were established using ganglioside GM3, 3H-labelled in the sphingosine moiety, as a substrate. Ganglioside GM3 sialidase activity was greatly stimulated by the presence of the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100 and was further enhanced by salts such as NaCl; the optimal pH was 4.5. The subcellular localization of this activity was determined by fractionation using free-flow electrophoresis and found to be exclusively associated with the marker for the plasma membrane, but not with that for lysosomes. This Triton-stimulated ganglioside sialidase activity was selectively inhibited by preincubating intact cells in the presence of millimolar concentrations of Cu2+, suggesting that the activity resides on the external surface of the plasma membrane. In normal fibroblasts homogenates, ganglioside GM3 sialidase was also greatly stimulated by sodium cholate. In contrast to the Triton X-100-activated reaction, however, it was not diminished by prior incubation of intact cells in the presence of Cu2+. Only after cell lysis was Cu2+ inhibitory. the cholate-stimulated ganglioside sialidase activity thus paralleled the behaviour of the lysosomal 4-methylumbelliferyl-alpha-D-N-acetylneuraminic acid (4-MU-NeuAc) sialidase. In fibroblasts from sialidosis patients, the cholate-stimulated ganglioside GM3 sialidase activity, but not that of the Triton-activated enzyme, was profoundly diminished. In fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis IV (ML IV), both the Triton X-100- and the cholate-stimulated ganglioside GM3 sialidase activities were in the range of normal controls. The Triton-activated enzyme was associated with the plasma membrane in the same manner as in normal cells. Our findings suggest that, in human fibroblasts, there exist two sialidases that degrade ganglioside GM3: one on the external surface of the plasma membrane, and another that is localized in lysosomes and seems identical with the activity that acts on sialyloligosaccharides and 4-MU-NeuAc. As neither activity was found to be deficient in ML IV fibroblasts, our results argue against the hypothesis of a primary involvement of a ganglioside GM3 sialidase in the pathogenesis of ML IV.

Cell Membrane

Defective lysosomal release of glycoprotein-derived sialic acid in fibroblasts from patients with sialic acid storage disease.

Fibroblasts from patients with sialic acid storage disease (SASD), sialidosis, mucolipidosis II, and from normal controls, were incubated in the presence of the glycoprotein fetuin that was tritium-labelled in its sialic acid residues by the periodate/[3H]borohydride reduction method, and the fate of the intracellular radioactive sialic acid (C7-sialic acid) followed in pulse-chase experiments. The model glycoprotein was readily endocytosed and degraded, more than 90% of the radioactivity being trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-soluble after 4 days of incubation. In all of the patients' fibroblasts, there was an increased accumulation of TCA-soluble radioactivity and, upon chase, a much lower rate of elimination than in normal controls. Gel chromatography of the material from the chase experiment showed that, in normal cells, most of the radioactivity at zero time behaved as free C7-sialic acid. This, as well as material of larger size (sialyloligosaccharides), was very much diminished by 48 h. In cells from two patients with SASD, there were large peaks both in the sialic acid and oligosaccharide positions; whereas the oligosaccharides were somewhat decreased by the end of the chase period, the sialic acid was essentially unchanged. In sialidosis fibroblasts, the radioactive material consisted of oligosaccharides, but very little C7-sialic acid; the elimination of the oligosaccharides was retarded. In normal cells, about 80% of the radioactivity released into the medium after 48 h chase behaved as free C7-sialic acid upon gel chromatography and t.l.c. Subcellular fractionation in Percoll gradients showed that the radioactive C7-sialic acid remaining in normal cells after 48 h of chase was mainly localized in the cytosol. In SASD cells, on the other hand, it was associated with lysosomal fractions which, unexpectedly, exhibited an abnormally low density. Our findings demonstrate that SASD fibroblasts degrade the sialoglycoprotein but, unlike normal cells, accumulate the liberated C7-sialic acid along with sialyloligosaccharides in their lysosomes. The results therefore support the concept of a defective transport system for sialic acid in the lysosomal membrane of patients with SASD.

Biological Transport

Lysosomal sialidase deficiency: increased ganglioside content in autopsy tissues of a sialidosis patient.

Organs obtained at autopsy from a patient with sialidosis were analyzed for 'bound' sialic acid and their ganglioside and neutral glycolipid patterns determined. The water-soluble bound sialic acid was increased between 10- and 17-fold in visceral organs, but only about 2-fold in the brain, when compared to normal controls. Lipid-bound sialic acid was increased up to 8-fold in visceral organs due to elevated amounts of gangliosides GM3, GD3 and probably GM4 and LM1, whereas the brain showed no deviation from controls. An alteration of the neutral glycolipid pattern was also observed. The results indicate an impaired catabolism of gangliosides in sialidosis in addition to that of sialyloligosaccharides and sialoglycoproteins.

Adult

Normomorphic sialidosis in two female adults with severe neurologic disease and without sialyl oligosacchariduria.

Two female patients of German origin, aged 38 and 21 years, with myoclonus epilepsy and cerebellar ataxia, but without dysmorphic signs and dementia, were found to excrete normal amounts of sialyl oligosaccharides in their urine. The younger patient showed cherry red spots in her ocular fundi. The older patient had a brother with an autopsy-proven neuronal storage disease compatible with sialidosis, and in her rectal biopsy lamellar inclusion bodies were detected. Enzyme assays in cultured fibroblasts of both patients revealed a profound but incomplete deficiency of oligosaccharide sialidase activity and normal beta-galactosidase activity. Adult sialidosis was diagnosed in both patients. In their fibroblasts, moderate elevations of bound sialic acid could also be measured. The small residual sialidase activity, which in the older patient had a normal KM value, is considered responsible for the late onset and slow clinical course of the disease. It is concluded that in adult sialidosis the extraneural storage process can be difficult to demonstrate in terms of metabolite accumulation or excretion during the course of intraneuronal storage.

Adult

N-Acetylneuraminic acid storage disease.

Increased amounts of free sialic acid were found in body fluids, leukocytes, cultured fibroblasts, and liver tissue of a four-year-old boy with mental retardation, ataxia, and clinical and radiologic findings of a mild mucopolysaccharidosis. A diagnosis of Salla disease was made though in contrast to earlier reports, recurrent upper respiratory infections and hepatosplenomegaly were present already in infancy, and skeletal abnormalities of dysostosis multiplex were found in early childhood. Free sialic acid in the urine was identified as N-acetylneuraminic acid by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. Sialidase activities were normal. Increased amounts of bound sialic acid were found in liver and cultured fibroblasts and were attributed to an intracellular inhibition of sialyloligosaccharide-degrading neuraminidase by excessive amounts of free neuraminic acid. The molecular basis of N-acetylneuraminic acid storage disease is unknown but may be related to a defective transport mechanism preventing neuraminic acid from leaving the lysosomal compartment.

Cells, Cultured

Familial lysosomal storage disease with generalized vacuolization and sialic aciduria. Sporadic Salla disease.

Two eight- and sixteen-year-old children with severe progressive neurologic disease revealed an ultrastructural finding of lysosomal vacuolization in mesenchymal or parenchymal cells of different organ biopsies (skin, muscle, nerve and liver), which may be very suggestive of mucolipidosis. However, in our patients biochemical tests available for these diseases yielded negative results, except for increased excretion of free sialic acid in urine and sialic acid storage in cultured fibroblasts. The clinical picture and the ultrastructural and biochemical findings were compatible with Salla disease, a rare lysosomal storage disease originally observed in Finland.

Adolescent

Mucopolysaccharidosis II (Hunter disease) with corneal opacities. Report on two patients at the extremes of a wide clinical spectrum.

Clinically visible corneal opacities were observed in a patient with an extremely severe form of mucopolysaccharidosis II. In a second patient with an unusually mild form of mucopolysaccharidosis II, discrete corneal opacities were detected by slit-lamp examination. Thus clear corneae can no longer be regarded as a hallmark of mucopolysaccharidosis II.

Adult

Increased urinary excretion of keratan sulfate in fucosidosis.

In two children exhibiting the clinical symptoms of fucosidosis, the diagnosis was biochemically ascertained by the demonstration of a profound altpha-L-fucosidase deficiency in cultured skin fibroblasts. The non-dialysed urines of these fucosidosis patients were separated into two fractions by chromatography on Biogel P-2. The first fraction containing the glycosaminoglycans was further fractionated on Dowex 1 X 2 by stepwise elution with increasing NaCl concentrations. Keratan sulfate-chondroitin sulfates attached to the same peptide core were assayed and characterised mainly in the fractions eluted with 1.25, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 mol/1 NaCl. Whereas the excretion of normal children of the same age was found to be 0.77 mumol glucosamine equivalents per day in the 2 mol/1 and 3 mol/1 NaCl fraction, the two patients excreted 6.7 (M. C.) and 3.5 (M. S.) mumol glucosamine equivalents per day, respectively. Since keratan sulfate contains alpha-fucose at the non-reducing terminal, this increase in excretion of long chain keratan sulfate in fucosidosis could result from impaired degradation of keratan sulfate, due to the alpha-fucosidase deficiency.

Acid Phosphatase