Exfoliative toxin from Staphylococcus aureus was mitogenic for murine spleen cells. It was primarily active on T lymphocytes but also significantly stimulated B cells from the spleens of nude mice. The mitogenicity was not affected by simple sugar or alpha-methylpyranosides. N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylgalactosamine inhibited its effect. Exfoliatin was as powerful a mitogen as the enterotox...

Rhomboid intramembrane proteases occur throughout the kingdoms of life. In this issue of Genes & Development, Baxt and colleagues (pp. 1636-1646) report that the single proteolytic rhomboid (EhROM1) from Entamoeba histolytica cleaves cell surface galactose-binding or N-acetylgalactosamine-binding (Gal/Gal-NAc) lectins. EhROM1 and lectins colocalize during phagocytosis and receptor capping. EhRO...

Histochemical analysis of frontal and temporal lobes from four patients with Pick presenile dementia indicated intracellular and extracellular deposits of gangliosides. Thin layer chromatography of gangliosides disclosed the presence of an unknown ganglioside, a decrease of N-acetylgalactosamine-GDla and an increase of GTla and/or GD2 in white matter of Pick brain. Chromatography of gray matter...

We describe MR spectroscopy in 2 patients with frontal sinus mucoceles that showed a dominant metabolite peak at 2.0-ppm chemical shift, simulating N-acetylaspartate (NAA) of normal neuronal tissue. In vitro analysis of postsurgical mucocele samples confirmed that the signal at 2.0 ppm was arising from the methyl moiety of an N-acetyl compound. This is probably caused by N-acetylgalactosamine o...

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA or Morquio type-A disease is a hereditary lysosomal storage disorder caused by deficient activity of the lysosomal enzyme N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase (GALNS). The disease is caused by lysosomal accumulation of unprocessed glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that manifests with severe to mild skeletal and cardiopulmonary abnormalities. We have developed a modif...

Mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI, Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, McKusick #253200) is a lysosomal storage disorder that is caused by a deficiency in the lysosomal exohydrolase N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulphatase (4-sulphatase, EC 3.1.6.1). We report a patient with no obvious clinical signs of MPS VI that has 5% of normal 4-sulphatase catalytic capacity. This patient represents an index case for t...

Group G hemolytic streptococcal cell walls which have been treated with trypsin are composed of a group-specific polysaccharide moiety and a mucopeptide matrix. The mucopeptide contains N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylmuramic acid, alanine, glutamic acid, lysine, and glycine, a composition similar to that of other groups of streptococci. The Group G carbohydrate is composed of rhamnose, N-acetylga...

Unnatural uridine diphosphate (UDP)-sugar donors, UDP-4-deoxy-4-fluoro-N-acetylglucosamine (4FGlcNAc) and UDP-4-deoxy-4-fluoro-N-acetylgalactosamine (4FGalNAc), were prepared using both chemical and chemoenzymatic syntheses relying on N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (GlmU). The resulting unnatural UDP-sugar donors were then tested as substrates in glycosaminoglycan synthesis...

An investigation of the glycoproteins of gastric mucus from biopsies of patients with gastric cancer has shown a change in certain carbohydrate components. There is a significant increase (P less than 0-001) in mannose and a significant decrease in N-acetylgalactosamine in both secretors and non-secretors from cancer-free and cancer-bearing regions of the stomach as compared with normal stomach...