UC Davis

Cell membrane protein glycosylation is dependent on the metabolic state of the cell as well as exogenous nutrients available. Although the metabolism and interconversion of monosaccharides have been well-studied, their incorporation into cell surface glycans and their corresponding glycoproteins remains relatively unknown. In this study, we developed a method to investigate quantitatively the incorporation pathways of dietary saccharides into specific glycans and glycoproteins on the cell membrane by treating intestinal Caco-2 and hepatic KKU-M213 cells with ¹³C-labeled monosaccharides and characterizing the resulting cell surface glycans and glycopeptides by LC-MS/MS. Time-course studies using uniformly labeled glucose revealed that the rate of incorporation was both glycan-specific and protein-dependent. Comparative studies using different dietary saccharides and multiple cell lines revealed the variance of monosaccharide utilization and interconversion in different tissues and organisms. The robust isotope-labeling and glycan profiling methods can provide a useful tool for differentiating glycosylation pathways and enhance the understanding of how dietary sugar intake affects health.