Aberrant glycosylation of E-cadherin enhances cell-cell binding to suppress metastasis

Introduction of the beta 1-4 N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (GnT-III) gene was reported to suppress metastasis in highly metastatic B16-hm murine melanoma cells (Yoshimura, M., Nishikawa, A., Ihara, Y., Taniguchi, S., and Taniguchi, N. (1995) Proc, Natl. Acad, Sci. U. S. A. 92, 8754-8758), In this study, the effect of GnT-III gene transfer on E-cadherin was studied, since E-cadherin acts as a suppressor of metastasis. E-cadherin expression at cell-cell contacts of B16-hm cells expressing high GnT-III activity was greater than controls without affecting transcription, Lectin blotting showed that E-cadherin from GnT-III transfectants was glycosylated by ectopically expressed GnT-III, The glycosylated E-cadherin exhibited the delayed turnover and the decreased release from cell surface, as compared with the native E-cadherin, resulting in the elevated expression at the cell-cell border of GnT-III transfectants. Furthermore, cell-cell aggregation was enhanced in GnT-III transfectants, indicating that the glycosylated E-cadherin is biologically functional, These results suggest that the glycosylated E-cadherin contributes to the suppression of metastasis by the introduction of GnT-III gene into melanoma cells.