Reconstructed glycan profile for evaluation of operating status of the endoplasmic reticulum glycoprotein quality control

Glycoprotein oligosaccharides function as tags for protein quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Since most of proteins are glycosylated and function only after they are properly folded, glycoprotein glycan profiles in the ER might be useful to analyze various cellular status including diseases. Here, we examined whether ER glycan-processing profiles in diabetic rats and osteoporotic mice as models might have different cellular status from those of normal controls. Direct analysis of glycoprotein-processing profiles in the ER is often hampered by glycoforms that are retro-translocated to the ER from other cellular compartments. Moreover, when we focus on the mixture of glycoproteins as the processing substrates, the glycan-processing efficiencies are influenced by the aglycon states including their polypeptide folding. To overcome this problem, we reconstructed glycan profiles using ER extracts as an enzymatic source and synthetic glycoprotein mimetic having homogeneous aglycon as a substrate, resulted in disease-specific glycan profiles. To understand such differences, we also analyzed the activity, and expression level, of each glycan-related enzyme. These glycan profiles are expected to be useful indexes for operational status of the ER glycoprotein quality control, and may also give information to classify some diseases.