Terminal galactosylation and sialylation switching on membrane glycoproteins upon TNF-alpha-induced insulin resistance in adipocytes — ASN Events

Terminal galactosylation and sialylation switching on membrane glycoproteins upon TNF-alpha-induced insulin resistance in adipocytes (#215)

Benjamin L Parker 1 , Morten Thaysen-Andersen 2 , Daniel J Fazakerley 1 , Mira Holliday 1 , Nicolle H Packer 2 , David E James 1
  1. The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Insulin resistance (IR) is a complex pathophysiological state that arises from both environmental and genetic perturbations and leads to a variety of diseases including type-2 diabetes (T2D). Obesity is associated with enhanced adipose tissue inflammation, which may play a role in disease progression. Inflammation modulates protein glycosylation in a variety of cell types and this has been associated with biological dysregulation. Here we have examined the effects of an inflammatory insult on protein glycosylation in adipocytes. We performed quantitative N-glycome profiling of membrane proteins derived from mouse 3T3-L1 adipocytes that had been incubated with or without the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha to induce IR. We identified the regulation of specific terminal N-glycan epitopes, including an increase in terminal di-galactose- and a decrease in biantennary alpha-2,3-sialoglycans. The altered N-glycosylation of TNF-alpha treated adipocytes correlated with the regulation of specific glycosyltransferases including the up-regulation of B4GalT5 and Ggta1 galactosyltransferases and down-regulation of ST3Gal6 sialyltransferase. Knockdown of B4GalT5 down-regulated the terminal di-galactose N-glycans, confirming the involvement of this enzyme in the TNF-alpha regulated N-glycome. SILAC-based quantitative glycoproteomics of enriched N-glycopeptides with and without deglycosylation were used to identify the protein and glycosylation sites modified with these regulated N-glycans. The combined proteome and glycoproteome workflow provided a relative quantification of changes in protein abundance versus N-glycosylation occupancy versus site-specific N-glycans on a proteome-wide level. This revealed the modulation of N-glycosylation on specific proteins in IR, including those previously associated with insulin-stimulated GLUT4 trafficking to the plasma membrane.