Limited N-Glycan Processing Impacts Chaperone Expression Patterns, Cell Growth and Cell Invasiveness in Neuroblastoma.

Enhanced N-glycan branching is associated with cancer, but recent investigations supported the involvement of less processed N-glycans. Herein, we investigated how changes in N-glycosylation influence cellular properties in neuroblastoma (NB) using rat N-glycan mutant cell lines, NB_1(-), NB_1(-) and NB_1(-), as well as the parental cell line NB_1. The two earlier mutant cells have compromised N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-I (GnT-I) and GnT-II activities. Lectin blotting showed that NB_1(-) cells had decreased activity of GnT-III compared to NB_1. ESI-MS profiles identified N-glycan structures in NB cells, supporting genetic edits. NB_1(-) had the most oligomannose N-glycans and the greatest cell invasiveness, while NB_1(-) had the fewest and least cell invasiveness. The proliferation rate of NB_1 was slightly slower than NB_1(-), but faster than NB_1(-) and NB_1(-). Faster proliferation rates were due to the faster progression of those cells through the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Further higher levels of oligomannose with 6-9 Man residues indicated faster proliferating cells. Human NB cells with higher oligomannose N-glycans were more invasive and had slower proliferation rates. Both rat and human NB cells revealed modified levels of ER chaperones. Thus, our results support a role of oligomannose N-glycans in NB progression; furthermore, perturbations in the N-glycosylation pathway can impact chaperone systems.