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Gene knockout mice of glycosyltransferases have clearly showed roles of their products in the bodies, while there are examples where phenotype of knockout was much less severe than expected probably due to functional redundancy. The most striking novel finding obtained from ganglioside-deficient mice was that progressive inflammatory reaction took place, leading to neurodegeneration. In particular, dysfunction of complement-regulatory proteins due to deteriorated architecture of lipid rafts seemed to be essential mechanisms for the inflammation. Furthermore, roles of gangliosides in neurons were demonstrated by neuron-specific transgenic of B4galnt1 with genetic background of B4galnt1 deficiency. From study of gene knockout mice of St8sia1, new roles of b-series gangliosides in leptin secretion from adipocytes, and roles of a-series gangliosides in leptin receptor, ObR in hypothalamus were demonstrated, leading to apparent intact balance of energy. Essential roles of b-series gangliosides in malignant properties of gliomas were also shown, suggesting their roles in the regulation of inflammation and proliferation in nervous tissues. How to apply these findings for the control of newly discovered patients with ganglioside deficiency remains to be investigated. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Neuro-glycoscience, edited by Kenji Kadomatsu and Hiroshi Kitagawa., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Gangliosides are widely involved in the regulation of cells and organs. However, little is known about their roles in adipose tissues and hypothalamus. In GD3 synthase-knockout (GD3S KO) mice, deletion of b-series gangliosides resulted in the reduction of serum leptin due to disturbed secretion from adipocytes. To examine whether leptin signals altered, leptin/leptin receptor (ObR)-mediated signaling in hypothalamus was analyzed. Hypothalamus of GD3S KO mouse showed increased expression of GM1 and GD1a, and increased activation of ObR-mediated signals such as pSTAT3 and c-Fos. Leptin stimulation of hypothalamus-derived N-41 cells and their transfectants with GD3S cDNA showed that a-series gangliosides positively regulate leptin/ObR-mediated signals. Co-precipitation analysis revealed that ObR interacts with a-series gangliosides with increased association by leptin stimulation. In brown adipose tissues (BAT) of GD3S KO mice, their weights and adipocyte numbers were increased, and BAT markers such as PGC1α and UCP-1 were also up-regulated. These results suggested that leptin/ObRb-mediated signals were enhanced in hypothalamus of GD3S KO mice due to increased a-series gangliosides, leading to the apparently similar features of energy expenditure between the KO and wild type mice., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Gangliosides are widely involved in the regulation of cells and organs. However, little is known about their roles in leptin secretion from adipose tissues. Genetic deletion of b-series gangliosides resulted in the marked reduction of serum leptin. Expression analysis of leptin revealed that leptin accumulated in the adipose tissues of GD3 synthase-knockout (GD3S KO) mice. Analysis of primary cultured stromal vascular fractions (SVF) derived from GD3S KO mice revealed that leptin secretion was reduced, although leptin amounts in cells were increased compared with those of wild type. Interestingly, addition of b-series gangliosides to the culture medium of differentiated SVF resulted in the restoration of leptin secretion. Results of methyl-β-cyclodextrin treatment of differentiated 3T3-L1 cells as well as immunocytostaining of leptin and caveolin-1 suggested that b-series gangliosides regulate the leptin secretion from adipose tissues in lipid rafts., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Recent progress in the biological sciences has revealed that a number of extrinsic and intrinsic environmental factors may cause chronic inflammation. When these insults are persistent or intermittently repeated, regardless of extrinsic or intrinsic origins, homeostasis of our bodies would be disturbed and undergo long-term impact. These situations might give rise to chronic inflammation, leading to various diseases as results of accumulative effects of various inflammatory reactions. Complex carbohydrates expressed mainly on the cell surface have been demonstrated to play roles in fine-tuning of various biological processes to maintain homeostasis of cells, organs and our bodies. When abnormal physicochemical insults and harmful pathogens invade, the fine-tuning including modification of the glycosylation patterns is continuously exerted. Therefore, defects in the proper response with proper glycosylation lead to chronic inflammation and subsequent deterioration of individual tissues and organs. Genetic depletion of sialic acid-containing glycolipids, gangliosides resulted in the inflammation of CNS and neurodegeneration. Lactosylceramide was also reported to mediate neuroinflammation, leading to chronic inflammatory diseases. Defects of globoseries glycolipids resulted in the increased sensitivity to LPS toxicity. Thus, possibilities that manipulation of synthesis and expression of glycosphingolipids may be applicable for the disease control are now proposed., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Wisp2/CCN5 belongs to CCN family proteins which are involved in cell proliferation, angiogenesis, tumorigenesis and wound healing. Although a number of studies on the roles of Wisp2/CCN5 in cancers have been reported, no study on the expression and function of Wisp2/CCN5 in the central nervous system has been reported. In this study, we focused on Wisp2/CCN5 that was up-regulated in nervous tissues in GM3-only mice. Over-expression of Wisp2/CCN5 enhanced neurite outgrowth potently after serum withdrawal with increased phosphorylation levels of Akt and ERKs. When cells were cultured with recombinant Wisp2/CCN5 proteins, more and longer neurites were formed than in the controls. Thus, we demonstrated for the first time that Wisp2/CCN5 facilitates neurite formation in a mouse neuroblastoma cell line, Neuro2a. Akt phosphorylation induced by recombinant Wisp2/CCN5 was suppressed after knockdown of integrin β1. Moreover, Wisp2/CCN5-over-expressing cells were resistant to apoptosis induced by H(2)O(2). These results suggested that secreted Wisp2/CCN5 induces Akt and ERK phosphorylation via integrins, and consequently facilitates neurite formation and conferred resistance to apoptosis. Up-regulation of Wisp2/CCN5 in GM3-only mice should be, therefore, a reaction to protect nervous tissues from neurodegeneration caused by ganglioside deficiency., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The GenomiPhi DNA Amplification Kit employs rolling circle amplification (RCA) using phi29 polymerase, dNTPs, and random hexamers. We demonstrated that repeated RCA (at least three times) is useful for high-fidelity amplification of large amounts of plasmid DNA.