Substrate specificities of rat kidney lysosomal and cytosolic alpha-D-mannosidases and effects of swainsonine suggest a role of the cytosolic enzyme in glycoprotein catabolism.

Swainsonine is a potent inhibitor of lysosomal alpha-D-mannosidase, causes the production of hybrid glycoproteins, and is reported to produce a phenocopy of hereditary alpha-mannosidosis. We now report that the effects of swainsonine administration in the rat are different in two respects from those found in other animals thus far studied. Swainsonine caused the accumulation of oligosaccharide in kidney and urine but not in liver or brain. The accumulated oligosaccharides were mainly Man(alpha 1-3)[Man(alpha 1-6)]Man(beta 1-4)GlcNAc, Man(alpha 1-3)[Man(alpha 1-6)[Man(alpha 1-3)]Man(beta 1-4) GlcNAc, and Man(alpha 1-3)[Man(alpha 1-6)]Man(alpha 1-6)[Man(alpha 1-3)]Man(beta 1-4)GlcNAc. Analogous branched Man4 and Man5 structures are found in pig and sheep tissues, but they are N, N'-diacetylchitobiose derivatives. The substrate specificities of rat kidney lysosomal and cytosolic alpha-D-mannosidases were investigated because in one type of hereditary alpha-mannosidosis, that occurring in man, the major storage products are linear rather than branched oligosaccharides. The lysosomal enzyme showed much greater activity toward linear oligosaccharides than toward the branched oligosaccharides induced in the kidney by swainsonine. On the other hand, cytosolic alpha-D-mannosidase preferred the branched oligosaccharides, a result suggesting that this mannosidase might be inhibitable by swainsonine and that the enzyme might play a normal role in glycoprotein catabolism. Swainsonine was indeed found to inhibit this enzyme at relatively high concentrations (I50 at 100 microM swainsonine), and concentrations of this magnitude were in fact found in the cytosol of kidney of swainsonine-fed rats. The kidney cytosolic alpha-D-mannosidase levels were reduced in these rats and, more important, the accumulated oligosaccharides were present mainly in the cytosol rather than in lysosomes. These results point to possible involvement of cytosolic alpha-D-mannosidase in glycoprotein degradation in the rat.