Biosynthesis of O-glycans in leukocytes from normal donors and from patients with leukemia: increase in O-glycan core 2 UDP-GlcNAc:Gal beta 3 GalNAc alpha-R (GlcNAc to GalNAc) beta(1-6)-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase in leukemic cells.

We have studied the biosynthesis of altered O-glycan structures on leukocytes from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia and with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML). It has been shown previously that the activity of CMP-NeuAc:Gal beta 1-3GalNAc alpha-R (sialic acid to galactose) alpha(2-3)-sialytransferase (EC 2.4.99.4) is increased in leukocytes from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (M. A. Baker, A. Kanani, I. Brockhausen, H. Schachter, A. Hindenburg, and R. N. Taub, Cancer Res., 47: 2763-2766, 1987) and with AML (A. Kanani, D. R. Sutherland, E. Fibach, K. L. Matta, A. Hindenburg, I. Brockhausen, W. Kuhns, R. N. Taub, D. van den Eijnden and M. A. Baker, Cancer Res., 50: 5003-5007, 1990). This increased activity may in part be responsible for the hypersialylation observed in leukemic leukocytes; however, hypersialylation may also be due to changes in underlying O-glycan structures. To test this hypothesis, we have assayed in normal human granulocytes and leukemic leukocytes several glycosyltransferases involved in the synthesis and elongation of the four common O-glycan cores. UDP-GlcNAc:Gal beta 1-3GalNAc-R (GlcNAc to GalNAc) beta(1-6)-GlcNAc transferase (EC 2.4.1.102), which synthesizes O-glycan core 2 (GlcNAc beta 1-6[Gal beta 1-3]GalNAc alpha), is significantly elevated in chronic myelogenous leukemia (4-fold) and AML (18-fold) leukocytes relative to normal human granulocytes. Neither normal nor leukemic cells show detectable activities of GlcNAc transferases which synthesize O-glycan core 3 (GlcNAc beta 1-3GalNAc-R) and core 4 (GlcNAc beta 1-6[GlcNAc beta 1-3] GalNAc-R) or the blood group I structure. The beta 3-GlcNAc transferase which elongates core 1 and core 2 was found at low levels in normal granulocytes but was not detectable in leukemic cells. The beta 3-GlcNAc transferase and beta 4-Gal transferase involved in poly-N-acetyllactosamine synthesis, as well as the beta 3-Gal transferase synthesizing core 1 (Gal beta 3 GalNAc), were present in all samples but were significantly increased in patients with AML. The observed changes are consistent with hypersialylation in leukemia.