Comparison of polysaccharide synthesis between preimplantation stage mouse embryos and F9 embryonal carcinoma cells

Polysaccharide synthesis was compared between preimplantation stage mouse embryos and F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. When cells were labelled with [3H]fucose, elution profiles of the pronase digest from a Sephacryl S-200 column were similar for the two cell types and both had characteristic large polysaccharides of the same size (Mr 20-500K), although embryos contained less large polysaccharide than F9 cells, and embryonic polysaccharides were less acidic, suggesting poor sialosylation. A significant proportion of [3H]mannose was incorporated into complex-type glycopeptides in F9 cells, whereas in the case of embryonic cells most glycopeptides remained as high mannose-type. The most striking difference was observed when cells were labelled with galactose. In the case of embryonic cells, 90% of the radioactivity was incorporated into glycogen, whereas only 0.1% of the incorporated galactose occurred in this molecule in F9 cells. These observations indicate that carbohydrate metabolism of morula-stage embryos is very different from that of F9 cells.