Effect of cell attachment and growth on the synthesis and fate of dolichol-linked oligosaccharides in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

The inhibition of cellular processes in suspended anchorage-dependent Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines and their restoration upon attachment to a solid substrate has been used as a model to study the relationship between oligosaccharide-diphospho-dolichols and their metabolic products (glycoprotein and soluble oligosaccharide material, i.e. oligosaccharide phosphates and neutral oligosaccharides). Using metabolic labelling we demonstrated that suspended cells have a low incorporation rate into lipid intermediates and into glycoproteins. The oligosaccharide-lipid populations are mainly glucosylated and the neutral oligosaccharides have exclusively a chitobiosyl residue at their reducing end. In contrast, monolayer cells exhibit a high incorporation rate into lipid intermediates with a pattern dominated by two species containing either two or five mannose residues, and into glycoproteins with a pattern similar to the one observed for suspended cells (i.e. glucosylated species). In monolayer cells the neutral oligosaccharides possess either one or two GlcNAc residues at their reducing end. The variations in the nature and in the quantity of soluble oligosaccharide material as a function of the cell density reflects regulatory points in the synthesis of N-glycosyl proteins. The first regulatory point could be the control of the quantity of non-glucosylated oligosaccharide-lipids to be channelled toward the glucosylated lipid-donor pool. The level of this donor pool being constant, the oligosaccharide-transferase could utilize oligosaccharide-lipid donors at a constant rate by two different reactions: either transfer onto protein when acceptors are available, or transfer onto water generating neutral oligosaccharides possessing two GlcNAc residues at the reducing end. Another regulatory point would be the degradation of a part of neoglycoproteins leading to the release of neutral oligosaccharides possessing one GlcNAc residue at the reducing end.