title: Surface glycosyltransferase activities during development of neuronal cell cultures.
abstract: Neurons in culture obtained from dissociated cerebral hemispheres of 8-day-old chick embryos showed measurable activities of galactosyl-, fucosyl-, and sialyl-transferases at the external surface of their plasma membrane. Important changes in these activities were observed during cell proliferation and maturation, in particular the surface fucosyltransferase activity, and/or the amount of intracellular fucosylated acceptors increased during synaptogenesis, between 3 and 5 days in culture (d.i.c.). A sodium dodecyl sulfate radioelectrophoretic analysis of the fucosylated neuronal acceptors labelled with [14C]fucose showed, during synaptogenesis, the high labelling of two protein bands of 116 and 50 X 10(3) daltons. The fucosylation of glycoconjugates occurred preferentially, in neurons, upon glycoproteins whereas in glial cell cultures glycolipids were more fucosylated. The reasons for such a difference are not yet understood but the results suggest that the surface fucosyltransferase activity and fucosylated proteins in particular may play a role during the synaptogenesis of neurons in culture.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005647:Fucosyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism*; D006602:Hexosyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D008274:Magnesium / Q000494:pharmacology; D008345:Manganese / Q000494:pharmacology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D012799:Sialyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D013347:Subcellular Fractions / Q000201:enzymology; D013569:Synapses / Q000378:metabolism; D000094802:beta-D-Galactoside alpha 2-6-Sialyltransferase
chemical_list: D009711:Nucleotides; D008345:Manganese; D005647:Fucosyltransferases; D006602:Hexosyltransferases; D012799:Sialyltransferases; D008274:Magnesium; D000094802:beta-D-Galactoside alpha 2-6-Sialyltransferase