High expression of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine: beta-D mannoside beta-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase III (GnT-III) in chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis.

The activity and mRNA expression of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine: beta-D mannoside beta-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyl transferase III (GnT-III: EC 2.4.1.144) were investigated in hematological malignancies. GnT-III activity was elevated in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in blast crisis and patients with multiple myeloma (MM), as compared to normal healthy subjects and patients with other hematological malignancies including CML in chronic phase. The GnT-III transcript was the same size in leukemic cells from various hematological diseases and cell lines, while expression of the transcript was not found to correlate significantly with enzyme activity, implying that post-translational modification might regulate the activity of GnT-III. Southern-blot analysis showed no significant variation in the structure and position of the GnT-III genome, indicating that the gene is present as a single copy without isoforms. Furthermore, analyses by immunoprecipitation and Western blot revealed that high GnT-III activity in KU812 cell, a CML cell line, resulted in an increase in E4-PHA binding to CD45, a major surface glycoprotein of the leukocyte, indicating that more bisecting GlcNAc was added to CD45 catalyzed by elevated GnT-III.