Expression of p53 protein in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Relationship to cigaret smoking.

We studied the expression of p53 gene product in pancreatic adenocarcinomas of the usual ductal type to determine its relationship to cigarette smoking and its usefulness as an independent prognostic indicator. Twenty-six resection specimens of pancreatic adenocarcinoma were examined by immunohistochemistry using an antigen retrieval solution and monoclonal PAb1801 and polyclonal CM1 antibodies on paraffin-embedded material. Specific nuclear p53 expression for both PAb1801 and CM1 was identified in seven cases (27%). In all cases immunoreaction was confined to neoplastic cells. Three of four (75%) tumors from patients who had never smoked showed immunoreaction, whereas only three of 14 (21%) tumors from smokers showed positive staining. Cases with positive staining had shorter mean survival (6.3 mo) than cases that failed to stain (9.8 mo), but the difference was not statistically significant in this small study. There was no statistically significant association between p53 immunoreactivity and other clinicopathologic parameters. Our findings indicate that abnormalities of p53 gene in pancreatic adenocarcinomas may not be directly related to cigarette smoking. Those patients who survived the longest tended to have tumors negative for p53 immunostaining. p53 immunoreaction may be a useful feature in distinguishing adenocarcinoma from chronic pancreatitis in small biopsies.

The signal anchor and stem regions of the beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase may each act to localize the enzyme to the Golgi apparatus.

The beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase has been localized to the trans cisternae of the Golgi apparatus and the trans Golgi network where it transfers sialic acid residues to terminal positions on N-linked oligosaccharides. It is a type II transmembrane protein possessing a 9-amino acid amino-terminal cytoplasmic tail, a 17-amino acid signal anchor domain, and a 35-amino acid stem region which tethers the large luminal catalytic domain to the membrane anchor. Previous work has demonstrated that the soluble sialytransferase catalytic domain is rapidly secreted from Chinese hamster ovary cells. These results suggest that the signals for Golgi apparatus localization do not reside in the catalytic domain of the enzyme but must reside in the cytoplasmic tail, signal anchor domain, and/or stem region. To determine which amino-terminal regions are required for Golgi apparatus localization, mutant sialyltransferase proteins were constructed by in vitro oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis, expressed in Cos-1 cells, and localized by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Signal cleavage-sialyltransferase mutants which consist of only the stem and catalytic domain of the enzyme are not rapidly secreted but are retained intracellularly and predominantly localized to the Golgi apparatus. However, deletion of either the stem region or the cytoplasmic tail of the membrane-bound sialyltransferase does not alter its Golgi apparatus localization. In addition, sequential replacement of the amino acids of the sialyltransferase signal anchor domain with amino acids from the signal anchor domain of a plasma membrane protein, the influenza virus neuraminidase does not alter the Golgi apparatus localization of the sialyltransferase. These observations suggest that sequences in the signal anchor region and stem region allow the Golgi apparatus localization of the membrane-bound and soluble forms of the sialytransferase, respectively, and that both regions may contain Golgi apparatus localization signals.

Conversion of a Golgi apparatus sialyltransferase to a secretory protein by replacement of the NH2-terminal signal anchor with a signal peptide.

The beta-galactoside alpha 2,6 sialyltransferase, an integral membrane protein localized to the trans-region of the Golgi apparatus, has been converted into a catalytically active secreted protein by the replacement of the NH2-terminal signal-anchor domain with the cleavable signal peptide of human gamma-interferon. Pulse-chase analysis of the wild type and recombinant proteins expressed in stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells showed that the wild type sialyltransferase (47 kDa) remained cell-associated. In contrast, the signal peptide-sialyltransferase fusion protein yielded an enzymatically active 41-kDa polypeptide which was secreted with a half-time of 2-3 h, consistent with cleavage of the signal peptide. The data indicate that the catalytic domain does not contain sufficient information for retention in the Golgi apparatus and that retention signals are likely to be found in the NH2-terminal 57 amino acids of the wild type enzyme.

Alteration of terminal glycosylation sequences on N-linked oligosaccharides of Chinese hamster ovary cells by expression of beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase.

In this report we describe the alteration of the N-linked oligosaccharide terminal sequences of Chinese hamster ovary cell glycoproteins by expression of a beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase cDNA. While wild type cells normally produce sugar chains terminating in the NeuAc alpha 2,3Gal linkage, the expressed enzyme competes with the endogenous sialyltransferase to attach an alternative terminal sequence, NeuAc alpha 2,6Gal. Subcellular localization of the NeuAc alpha 2,6Gal product by lectin-gold electron microscopy revealed localization throughout the Golgi apparatus cis to trans, post-Golgi membranes and vesicular structures. The results demonstrate the potential for purposefully altering terminal carbohydrate structures in vivo by "mis-expressing" terminal glycosyltransferases that compete with the endogenous enzyme normally produced by the cells.

Primary structure of beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase. Conversion of membrane-bound enzyme to soluble forms by cleavage of the NH2-terminal signal anchor.

This report describes the primary structure of a rat liver beta-galactoside alpha 2,6-sialyltransferase (EC 2.4.99.1), a Golgi apparatus enzyme involved in the terminal sialylation of N-linked carbohydrate groups of glycoproteins. The complete amino acid sequence was deduced from the nucleotide sequence of cDNA clones of the enzyme. The primary structure suggests that the topology of the enzyme in the Golgi apparatus consists of a short NH2-terminal cytoplasmic domain, a 17-residue hydrophobic sequence which serves as the membrane anchor and signal sequence, and a large lumenal, catalytic domain. NH2-terminal sequence analysis of a truncated form of the enzyme, obtained by purification from tissue homogenates, reveals that it is missing a 63-residue NH2-terminal peptide which includes the membrane binding domain. These and supporting results show that soluble forms of the sialyltransferase can be generated by proteolytic cleavage between the NH2-terminal signal-anchor and the catalytic domain.