Characterization of the oligosaccharide structures associated with the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator.

The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a plasma membrane-associated glycoprotein. The protein can exist in three different molecular weight forms of approximately 127, 131, and 160 kDa, representing either nonglycosylated, core glycosylated, or fully mature, complex glycosylated CFTR, respectively. The most common mutation in cystic fibrosis (CF) results in the synthesis of a variant (DeltaF508-CFTR) that is incompletely glycosylated and defective in its trafficking to the cell surface. In this study, we have analyzed the oligosaccharide structures associated with the different forms of recombinant CFTR, by expressing and purifying the channel protein from either mammalian Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) or insect Sf9 cells. Using glycosidases and FACE analysis (fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis) we determined that purified CHO-CFTR contained polylactosaminoglycan (PL) sequences, while Sf9-CFTR had only oligomannosidic saccharides with fucosylation on the innermost GlcNAc. The presence of PL sequences on the recombinant CHO-CFTR is consistent with a normal feature of mammalian processing, since endogenous CFTR isolated from T84 cells displayed a similar pattern of glycosylation. The present study also reports on the use of FACE for the qualitative analysis of small amounts of glycoprotein oligosaccharides released enzymatically.