The control of sialyltransferase activity in tumor-cell lines derived from different tissues in multifactorial

The activities of the sialyltransferase enzymes and the resulting expression of sialoglycoproteins were examined in tumor cells derived from different tissues in order to gain a greater understanding of the factors controlling the cell glycosylation state. Cell-cell contact, which is dependent on cell confluency state, was shown to influence glycosylation in the neurally-derived mouse neuro-2A neuroblastoma and the C6 glioma cell lines. Both showed a relatively high level of cell sialyltransferase activity under sub-confluent conditions with activity decreasing upon the formation of cell-cell contacts associated with confluency. A parallel decrease in the expression of sialoglycoproteins, as determined by lectin blot analysis, was observed under these conditions. In contrast, the H411e hepatoma cell line showed an increase in enzyme activity with confluency with the susceptibility of the enzyme in this cell line to glucocorticoid induction only being detected in sub-confluent cell cultures. The number of trypsinisation cycles of the cells was also shown to affect the enzyme activity of the neuro-2A and C6 cells with an increase in enzyme activity coincident with passage number being observed in the neuro-2A cells, and a decrease in the C6 glioma cell line. Trypsinisation had no effect on enzyme activity in the H411e cells. These results demonstrate that the control of sialyltransferase activity in tumor cells is multifactorial with the tissue of origin playing a key role.