Studies on the effect of inflammation on rat liver and serum sialyltransferase. Evidence that inflammation causes release of Gal beta 1 leads to 4GlcNAc alpha 2 leads to 6 sialyltransferase from liver.

Turpentine induced inflammation has been shown to elevate liver sialyl- and galactosyltransferase activities (Turchen, B., Jamieson, J.C., Huebner, E., and van Caeseele, L. (1977) Can. J. Zool. 55, 1567-1571; Lombart, C., Sturgess, J., and Schachter, H. (1980) Biochem. Biophys. Acta 629, 1-12). We now report that serum sialyl-, but not galactosyltransferase activities are significantly elevated in turpentine inflammation. A liver slice system is used to demonstrate that liver releases large amounts of sialyltransferase activity into medium after inflammation, whereas only a low level of galactosyltransferase activity is released. Studies with rat and human asialo-alpha 1-acid glycoprotein as acceptors, coupled with the use of lactose to confirm the nature of the linkages formed, showed that Gal beta 1 leads to 4GlcNAc alpha 2 leads to 6 sialyltransferase is released from liver in turpentine inflammation and is mainly responsible for the elevated sialyltransferase activity found in serum. The alpha 2 leads to 6 sialyltransferase is exhibiting the properties of a typical acute phase reactant.