Analytical tools for the study of cellular glycosylation in the immune system

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly clear that glycosylation plays important role in intercellular communication within the immune system. Glycosylation-dependent interactions are crucial for the innate and adaptive immune system and regulate immune cell trafficking, synapse formation, activation, and survival. These functions take place by the cis or trans interaction of lectins with glycans. Classical immunological and biochemical methods have been used for the study of lectin function; however, the investigation of their counterparts, glycans, requires very specialized methodologies that have been extensively developed in the past decade within the Glycobiology scientific community. This mini-review intends to summarize the available technology for the study of glycan biosynthesis, its regulation and characterization for their application to the study of glycans in immunology.

Keywords: glycan analysis; glycans; glycosyltransferases; immune cells; lectins.

Figure 1

Dissecting the glycosylation machinery. Glycosylation is a complex process that involves a large number of molecules and organelles. The glycosylation machinery can be defined as the set of enzymes, chaperones, transporters, sugar donors, and accessory molecules necessary for the modification of proteins or lipids with carbohydrates. Since many of these molecules are subjected to regulation, glycosylation is a highly dynamic process and it is, therefore, interesting to address not only the array of glycans present on the cell surface or the secretome, but also the activity and the expression levels of the molecules involved in glycan biosynthesis.