Fluoroaluminate stimulates phosphorylation of p130 Cas and Fak and increases attachment and spreading of preosteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells.

Fluoroaluminate is a G-protein activator, it stimulates osteoblastic cells in culture, and is a bone-forming agent in vivo. To elucidate the mechanisms of G-protein-mediated action of fluoroaluminate in osteoblasts, we studied protein tyrosine phosphorylation in the preosteoblastic cell line MC3T3-E1. Fluoroaluminate, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA; an agonist for G-protein-coupled receptor), or adhesion to type I collagen all stimulated phosphorylation of a similar set of proteins, including p130, p120, p110 (previously identified as proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2, Pyk2), and p70. The phosphorylation of these proteins was sensitive to an Src inhibitor, but not to a Gi-protein inactivator, pertussis toxin. By purification/mass spectrometry and by immunodepletion, p130 protein was identified as p130 Cas (Crk-associated protein), a Src substrate and a protein involved in signaling by cell-adhesion receptors, integrins. Phosphorylation of immunoprecipitated p130 Cas increased upon stimulation with fluoroaluminate and with agonists of G-protein-coupled receptors, but not with growth factors. By immunodepletion, the p120 protein was identified as focal adhesion kinase, Fak. The addition of fluoroaluminate during cell attachment to type I collagen further stimulated phosphorylation of p130 Cas and of Fak. Simultaneously, fluoroaluminate increased the number of attached MC3T3-E1 cells and their spreading. These novel aspects of fluoroaluminate action in cell culture may be important for the bone-forming action of fluoroaluminate in vivo.

Direct stereochemical assignment of sugar subunits in naturally occurring glycosides by low energy collision induced dissociation. Application to papulacandin antibiotics.

A tandem mass spectrometric method is described which allows the assignment of stereochemistry to fragment ions comprising intact sugar subunits of larger glycosides without chemical degradation and product isolation by chromatography. The approach relies on the mass selection of the 'sugar ion' of interest followed by analysis of stereoselective fragmentation induced by low-energy collisional activation. The daughter ion spectra provide configurational fingerprints of the selected sugar ions which can be matched for identity with reference spectra obtained from suitable precursors of known stereochemistry. Glucose, mannose and galactose furnished the required set of the most important reference ions. By using peracetyl (and perdeuterioacetyl) derivatives, galactose was readily identified as the glycosidic sugar constituent of the (known) antibiotic papulacandin B and a further (unknown) congener.