Glycan biosynthesis relies on nucleotide sugars (NSs), abundant metabolites that serve as monosaccharide donors for glycosyltransferases. In vivo, signal-dependent fluctuations in NS levels are required to maintain normal cell physiology and are dysregulated in disease. However, how mammalian cells regulate NS levels and pathway flux remains largely uncharacterized. To address this knowledge gap, here we examined UDP-galactose 4\'-epimerase (GALE), which interconverts two pairs of essential NSs. Using immunoblotting, flow cytometry, and LC-MS-based glycolipid and glycan profiling, we found that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated GALE deletion in human cells triggers major imbalances in NSs and dramatic changes in glycolipids and glycoproteins, including a subset of integrins and the cell-surface death receptor FS-7-associated surface antigen. In particular, we observed substantial decreases in total sialic acid, galactose, and GalNAc levels in glycans. These changes also directly impacted cell signaling, as GALE -/- cells exhibited FS-7-associated surface antigen ligand-induced apoptosis. Our results reveal a role of GALE-mediated NS regulation in death receptor signaling and may have implications for the molecular etiology of illnesses characterized by NS imbalances, including galactosemia and metabolic syndrome.

Emergency granulopoiesis occurs in response to infectious or inflammatory challenge and is a component of the innate immune response. Some molecular events involved in initiating emergency granulopoiesis are known, but termination of this process is less well defined. In this study, we found that the interferon consensus sequence binding protein (Icsbp/Irf8) was required to terminate emergency granulopoiesis. Icsbp is an interferon regulatory transcription factor with leukemia suppressor activity. Expression of Icsbp is decreased in chronic myeloid leukemia, and Icsbp(-/-) mice exhibit progressive granulocytosis with evolution to blast crisis, similar to the course of human chronic myeloid leukemia. In this study, we found aberrantly sustained granulocyte production in Icsbp(-/-) mice after stimulation of an emergency granulopoiesis response. Icsbp represses transcription of the genes encoding Fas-associated phosphatase 1 (Fap1) and growth arrest-specific 2 (Gas2) and activates genes encoding Fanconi C and F. After stimulation of emergency granulopoiesis, we found increased and sustained expression of Fap1 and Gas2 in bone marrow myeloid progenitor cells from Icsbp(-/-) mice in comparison with the wild type. This was associated with resistance to Fas-induced apoptosis and increased β-catenin activity in these cells. We also found that repeated episodes of emergency granulopoiesis accelerated progression to acute myeloid leukemia in Icsbp(-/-) mice. This was associated with impaired Fanconi C and F expression and increased sensitivity to DNA damage in bone marrow myeloid progenitors. Our results suggest that impaired Icsbp expression enhances leukemogenesis by deregulating processes that normally limit granulocyte expansion during the innate immune response.

Death receptors are members of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily involved in the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. Lifeguard (LFG) is a death receptor antagonist mainly expressed in the nervous system that specifically blocks Fas ligand (FasL)-induced apoptosis. To investigate its mechanism of action, we studied its subcellular localization and its interaction with members of the Bcl-2 family proteins. We performed an analysis of LFG subcellular localization in murine cortical neurons and found that LFG localizes mainly to the ER and Golgi. We confirmed these results with subcellular fractionation experiments. Moreover, we show by co-immunoprecipitation experiments that LFG interacts with Bcl-XL and Bcl-2, but not with Bax or Bak, and this interaction likely occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum. We further investigated the relationship between LFG and Bcl-XL in the inhibition of apoptosis and found that LFG protects only type II apoptotic cells from FasL-induced death in a Bcl-XL dependent manner. The observation that LFG itself is not located in mitochondria raises the question as to whether LFG in the ER participates in FasL-induced death. Indeed, we investigated the degree of calcium mobilization after FasL stimulation and found that LFG inhibits calcium release from the ER, a process that correlates with LFG blockage of cytochrome c release to the cytosol and caspase activation. On the basis of our observations, we propose that there is a required step in the induction of type II apoptotic cell death that involves calcium mobilization from the ER and that this step is modulated by LFG.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of gold nanoparticle geometry on the biochemical response of Calu-3 epithelial cells.
METHODS: Spherical, triangular and hexagonal gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were used. The GNP-cell interaction was assessed via atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The biochemical impact of GNPs was determined over 72 h at (0.0001-1 mg/ml).
RESULTS: At 1 mg/ml, hexagonal GNPs reduced Calu-3 viability below 60%, showed increased reactive oxygen species production and higher expression of proapoptotic markers. A cell mass burden of 1:2:12 as well as number of GNPs per cell (2:1:3) was observed for spherical:triangular:hexagonal GNPs.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings do not suggest a direct shape-toxicity effect. However, do highlight the contribution of shape towards the GNP-cell interaction which impacts upon their intracellular number, mass and volume dose.