Helicobacter pylori infects the stomachs of nearly a half the human population, yet most infected individuals remain asymptomatic, which suggests that there is a host defense against this bacterium. Because H. pylori is rarely found in deeper portions of the gastric mucosa, where O-glycans are expressed that have terminal alpha1,4-linked N-acetylglucosamine, we tested whether these O-glycans might affect H. pylori growth. Here, we report that these O-glycans have antimicrobial activity against H. pylori, inhibiting its biosynthesis of cholesteryl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside, a major cell wall component. Thus, the unique O-glycans in gastric mucin appeared to function as a natural antibiotic, protecting the host from H. pylori infection.
Carcinogenesis is a multistep process accompanied by genetic alterations of precancerous cells and by simultaneous construction of the tumor microenvironment.1 Clinical and experimental evidence have evaluated the importance of interactions between cancer cells and the surrounding stroma to facilitate tumor progression.
2,3One of the cellular components in the intratumoral stroma is a subpopulation of fibroblasts. 4 These activated fibroblasts, sometimes termed tumor-associated fibroblasts, are capable of modulating the tumor microenvironment during tumor development and progression. A specific contribution of the tumor-associated fibroblasts is to sup-
Vimentin and desmin are intermediate filament proteins found in various mesenchymal and skeletal muscle cells, respectively. These proteins play an important role in the stabilization of the cytoplasmic architecture. Here, we found, using artificial biomimicking glycopolymers, that vimentin and desmin possess N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc)-binding lectin-like properties on the cell surfaces of various vimentin- and desmin-expressing cells such as cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells. The rod II domain of these proteins was demonstrated to be localized to the cell surface and to directly bind to the artificial biomimicking GlcNAc-bearing polymer, by confocal laser microscopy and surface plasmon resonance analysis. These glycopolymers strongly interact with lectins and are useful tools for the analysis of lectin-carbohydrate interactions, since glycopolymers binding to lectins can induce the clustering of lectins due to multivalent glycoside ligand binding. Moreover, immunocytochemistry and pull-down assay with His-tagged vimentin-rod II domain protein showed that the vimentin-rod II domain interacts with O-GlcNAc proteins. These results suggest that O-GlcNAc proteins might be one candidate for physiological GlcNAc-bearing ligands with which vimentin and desmin interact. These findings demonstrate a novel function of vimentin and desmin that does not involve stabilization of the cytoplasmic architecture by which these proteins interact with physiological GlcNAc-bearing ligands such as O-GlcNAc proteins on the cell surface through their GlcNAc-binding lectin-like properties.
S U M M A R Y Ribosomal proteins are a major component of ribosomes and play critical roles in protein biosynthesis. Recently it has been shown that the ribosomal proteins also function during various cellular processes that are independent of protein biosynthesis therefore called extraribosomal functions. In this study we have, for the first time, determined the expression profile of 12 ribosomal proteins (Sa, S8, S11, S12, S18, S24, L7, L13a, L18, L28, L32, and L35a) in normal epithelia of human colorectal mucosa using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and then compared their expression patterns with those of colorectal cancer. In the normal mucosa, ribosomal proteins were largely associated with the ribosomes of mucosal epithelia, and the expression level of ribosomal proteins, except for S11 and L7 proteins, was markedly increased in associated with maturation of the mucosal cells. On the other hand, these ribosomal proteins were markedly decreased in colorectal cancer compared with the normal mucosa. By contrast, S11 and L7 ribosomal proteins were rarely associated with the ribosomes of colorectal epithlia except immature mucosal cells, whereas their expression levels were significantly enchanced in colorectal cancer cells. In addition, L7 ribosomal protien was detected in the secretory granules of the enterochromaffin cells in the colorectal mucosa and in carcinoma cells expressing chromogranin A. These results indicate that the expression of ribosomal proteins is differentially regulated not only in normal mucosa but also in carcinoma of human colorectum, and suggest an extraribosomal function of L7 ribosomal protein in neuroendocrine function.
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