Regulation of glycoinositol phospholipid anchor assembly in human lymphocytes. Absent mannolipid synthesis in affected T and natural killer cell lines from paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria patients.

Glycoinositol phospholipid (GPI) anchor structures derive from sequentially glycosylated inositol phospholipid precursors assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum. To characterize GPI biosynthesis in nontransformed human lymphocytes and to define the GPI synthetic defect underlying deficient expression of GPI-anchored proteins by paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) cells, putative intracellular GPI intermediates were analyzed following [3H]Man labeling of normal and affected lymphocytes. In unstimulated normal peripheral blood lymphocytes, [3H]Man incorporation into GPIs was minimally detectable but after phytohemagglutinin (PHA), allogeneic cell, or anti-CD3 stimulation, assembly of [3H]Man-labeled GPIs markedly increased. Expression of GPIs by prestimulated quiescent PHA blasts could be efficiently induced by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and increased by the Ca2+ ionophore A23187 independently of new protein synthesis. Utilizing allogeneically stimulated cells in conjunction with PMA induction, products deriving from [3H]Man labeling of affected CD48- T and natural killer lymphocyte cell lines from five PNH patients were compared to those deriving from unaffected CD48+ cell lines from the same patients or controls. In contrast to unaffected paired control cells, affected cells of all of the patients exhibited a common abnormality in which they assembled dolichol-phosphoryl-Man but failed to express [3H]Man-containing GPIs. These data indicate that 1) significant GPI production in lymphocytes is dependent on prior stimulation of the cells, 2) exposure of lymphocytes to agents which activate protein kinase C induces GPI synthesis, and 3) in five PNH patients affected lymphocytes are uniformly defective in an early GPI biosynthetic step which undermines expression of GPI mannolipids.