title: N- and O-linked glycosylation of total plasma glycoproteins in galactosemia.
abstract: Classic galactosemia is a potentially lethal metabolic disorder that results from profound impairment of the enzyme galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (GALT); despite decades of research, the underlying mechanism of pathophysiology remains unclear. Previous studies of plasma and tissue samples from patients with classic galactosemia have revealed defects of protein and lipid glycosylation, however, the underlying bases for these defects and their clinical significance, if any, has remained unclear. As a step toward addressing these questions we characterized both the N- and O-linked glycomes of plasma proteins from neonates, infants, children, and adults with galactosemia using mass spectrometry and asked (1) whether similar or disparate defects exist for N-linked and O-linked modifications, (2) what factors correlate with the severity of these defects in different patients, and perhaps most important, (3) whether there is any apparent relationship between chronic glycosylation defects and long-term outcome in patients. We found that some but not all of the galactosemic neonates tested exhibited abnormal N- and O-linked glycosylation of plasma proteins. The types of abnormalities seen were similar between N- and O-linked moieties, but the extent of the defects varied between patients. Age, gender, GALT genotype, and predicted residual GALT activity all failed to explain the extent of the glycosylation defect in the samples studied. Dietary galactose restriction markedly normalized both the N- and O-linked glycosylation patterns for all infants tested; however, any remaining glycosylation defects evident in the plasma of older children or adults on galactose-restricted diets showed no correlation with clinical outcome. These data cannot rule out the possibility that subtle or localized glycosylation defects, not detectable by our methods or not reflected in plasma, may contribute to acute or long-term outcome severity.
authors: Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Baoyun
authors: B
authors: Xia
authors: Tyler J
authors: TJ
authors: Gleason
authors: Uriel
authors: U
authors: Castañeda
authors: Miao
authors: M
authors: He
authors: Gerard T
authors: GT
authors: Berry
authors: Judith L
authors: JL
authors: Fridovich-Keil
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005690:Galactose / Q000378:metabolism; D005693:Galactosemias / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000097:blood / Q000737:chemistry; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D005694:UTP-Hexose-1-Phosphate Uridylyltransferase / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D011134:Polysaccharides; D005694:UTP-Hexose-1-Phosphate Uridylyltransferase; D005690:Galactose