Survival signals of hepatic stellate cells in liver regeneration are regulated by glycosylation changes in rat vitronectin, especially decreased sialylation.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules play important roles in many biological and pathological processes. During tissue remodeling, the ECM molecules that are glycosylated are different from those of normal tissue owing to changes in the expression of many proteins that are responsible for glycan synthesis. Vitronectin (VN) is a major ECM molecule that recognizes integrin on hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). The present study attempted to elucidate how changes in VN glycans modulate the survival of HSCs, which play a critical role in liver regeneration. Plasma VN was purified from partially hepatectomized (PH) and sham-operated (SH) rats at 24 h after operation and non-operated (NO) rats. Adhesion of rat HSCs (rHSCs), together with phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase, in PH-VN was decreased to one-half of that in NO- or SH-VN. Spreading of rHSCs on desialylated NO-VN was decreased to one-half of that of control VN, indicating the importance of sialylation of VN for activation of HSCs. Liquid chromatography/multiple-stage mass spectrometry analysis of Glu-C glycopeptides of each VN determined the site-specific glycosylation. In addition to the major biantennary complex-type N-glycans, hybrid-type N-glycans were site-specifically present at Asn(167). Highly sialylated O-glycans were found to be present in the Thr(110)-Thr(124) region. In PH-VN, the disialyl O-glycans and complex-type N-glycans were decreased while core-fucosylated N-glycans were increased. In addition, immunodetection after two-dimensional PAGE indicated the presence of hyper- and hyposialylated molecules in each VN and showed that hypersialylation was markedly attenuated in PH-VN. This study proposes that the alteration of VN glycosylation modulates the substrate adhesion to rat HSCs, which is responsible for matrix restructuring.