Bacterial Glycosulphatases and Sulphomucin Degradation
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PEDIATRIC GASTROENTEROLOGY Bacterial glycosulphatases and sulphomucin degradation Anthony M Roberton BSc(Hons) DPhil, Damian P Wright MSc AM Roberton, DP Wright. Bacterial glycosulphatases and sul- Glycosulfatases bactériennes et dégradation de phomucin degradation. Can J Gastroenterol 1997;11(4):361- 366. The presence of a high bacterial population in a region of the la sulfomucine gastrointestinal tract is usually associated with the secretion of sul- RÉSUMÉ : La présence d’une forte population bactérienne dans une ré- phomucins into the mucus gel covering that region. The term ‘su- gion du tractus digestif est habituellement associée à la sécrétion de sul- lphomucin’ is a histochemical description of the staining fomucines dans le gel muqueux qui tapisse cette région. Le terme properties of mucin. At present this term can only be qualitatively sulfomucine est une description histochimique des propriétés colorantes de related to the percentage of sulphate in the mucin molecule, la mucine. À l’heure actuelle, ce terme ne peut être que qualitativement as- which makes the term difficult to use in a biochemical and func- socié au pourcentage de sulfate présent dans la molécule de mucine, ce qui tional sense. Sulphomucins are thought to carry out the normal rend son emploi difficile dans un sens biochimique et fonctionnel. Les sul- functions attributed to mucins; in addition, heavy sulphation fomucines accompliraient des fonctions normalement attribuées aux mu- rate-limits the degradation of mucins by bacterial mucin- cines; de plus, de forts taux de sulfatation limitent la dégradation des degrading glycosidases. A number of mucin-specific glycosul- mucines par les glycosidases responsables de la dégradation de la mucine phatases have been reported in bacteria, although only two such bactérienne. Un nombre de glycosulfatases spécifiques aux mucines ont été enzymes have been purified. These enzymes remove part of the signalés dans les bactéries, bien que peu seulement des ces enzymes aient sulphate content from sulphomucins and make them more suscep- été purifiées. Ces enzymes éliminent une partie de la teneur en sulfates des tible to further enzymic degradation. The variety of chain loca- sulfomucines et les rendent plus sujettes à la dégradation enzymatique. La tions and sugar attachment sites of sulphate esters on the mucin variété des localisations des chaînes et des types de fixation aux atomes de oligosaccharides, taken together with the data on the enzymes, sucre des esters de sulfate sur les oligosaccharides de mucine étudiés dans le suggest there will be a spectrum of bacterial glycosulphatases, with contexte des données recueillies sur les enzymes donnent à penser qu’il ex- different properties, cellular locations and substrate specificities. iste un large spectre de glycosulfatases bactériennes dotées de propriétés de Bacterial glycosulphatases have the potential to modify sulphated localisation cellulaire et de spécificité des substrats différentes. Elles peu- glycoconjugates at mucosal surfaces and should prove useful as vent modifier les glycoconjugués sulfatés sur les surfaces muqueuses et biochemical tools for the study of sulphated glycoconjugates. devraient se révéler utiles à titre d’outils biochimiques pour l’étude des gly- Key Words: Glycosulphatase, Mucin, Sulphomucin coconjugués sulfatés. he digestive tract is covered by a viscoelastic mucus gel, simplification of the complexity of the molecule. It is more Tin which the main structural molecules are the mucins. accurate to picture the mucin oligosaccharide chains as con- These have been categorized historically as neutral mucins, taining a mixture of sialic acid and sulphate groups in various sialomucins or sulphomucins on the basis of the density and ratios (Figure 1d). The terms ‘sialomucin’, ‘sulphomucin’ or types of acidic groups present in their oligosaccharide side ‘neutral mucin’ then more correctly describe the predomi- chains. However, this categorization, depicted schemati- nance of sialic acid or sulphate acidic groups or their scarcity cally in Figures 1a to 1c, implies a structure that is an over- in the mucin molecule. Recent analyses of oligosaccharide This paper was part of a symposium entitled “Selected topics in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition” held in October 1995 to honour the academic career of Dr Gordon G Forstner School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Correspondence: Dr AM Roberton, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. Telephone 64-9-373-7599 ext 8233, fax 64-9-373-7414 Can J Gastroenterol Vol 11 No 4 May/June 1997 361 Roberton and Wright lium. Sulphomucins can be visualized in mucin-secreting cells and the overlying mucus layer by staining with high iron diamine (HID) at pH 1.5, Alcian blue at pH 1.0, or HID and Alcian blue at pH 2.5 (3). When colon tissue is treated with the last of these techniques, the sulphomucins in the crypt goblet cells stain dark brown with HID, while the sia- lomucins, containing mucin with less sulphate and larger amounts of sialic acid, stain blue with Alcian blue. There is some difficulty in using the term sulphomucin in a biochemical context. The term was coined by histochem- ists to describe mucins that stain with HID or Alcian blue at pH 1. However, while this characterization broadly relates to the name, the percentage of sulphate in mucin (ie, grams of sulphate/100 g mucin) needed to give a positive stain is un- known (4). Table 1 (5-10) shows the sulphate content of a selection of isolated human mucins from saliva and intes- tines. The small intestinal mucins would presumably be clas- sified histochemically as sialomucins rather than sulpho- mucins, and the unfractionated colonic mucin (9) would be a mixture of sialomucins and sulphomucins. It is clear that small intestinal mucins (sialomucins) contain sulphate, al- though in lesser amounts than colonic mucin. The quantity of sulphate needed to qualify a mucin for categorization as a Figure 1) Classes of mucins. Stylized diagrams of (a) neutral mucin sulphomucin is unclear. Perhaps the borderline should not chain, (b) sialomucin chain and (c) sulphomucin chain. These concepts be defined until the properties that sulphate imparts to a mu- are oversimplified because they show only one type of acidic group within cin are better understood, and until it is known whether all the mucin. A more realistic concept of an acidic mucin chain containing sulphate groups should be considered equivalent despite dif- both sulphate and sialic acid groups within the molecule is shown in (d) ferent chain locations and sugar attachment sites. So there is a problem in defining boundaries within which to define the TABLE 1 term sulphomucin. Sulphate contents of human salivary and intestinal mucins ROLES OF SULPHOMUCINS Sulphate What are the sulphomucins doing in the digestive tract? Pre- Mucin content* Reference sumably they possess many of the functions of all mucins, in- Saliva (submandibular-sublingual, high 7.0 5 cluding participating in the barrier role and protecting the molecular weight mucin, MG1) underlying surface from the aggressive and damaging luminal Small intestine 0.45 6 1.6 7 factors in the particular region. They also lubricate the mu- Ileum (ileal conduit) 1.2 8 cosal surface, preventing abrasion by food or fecal particles Colon (cystic fibrosis patient) 2.0 9 during passage through the tract. They are part of the un- Colon (isolated sulphomucin fraction) 6.5 10 stirred water layer through which all substances must diffuse *Grams sulphate/100 g mucin to enter or leave the epithelial cell surface during absorption and secretion. Mucins are the main structural molecules of the visco-elastic mucus gel, and their reduced viscosity and chain structures have shown that both sulphate and sialic calcium binding activity both increase with sulphate con- acid groups can be present within a single oligosaccharide tent, although the values are also affected by forming com- chain (1,2). plexes with other components of the mucin layer (11). Sulphomucins may be a target for certain bacterial receptors. SULPHOMUCINS In addition, there is accumulating evidence that sulpho- In humans the mouth and the colon are the two main re- mucins rate-limit mucin degradation by mucin-degrading gions of the digestive tract containing sulphomucins. As a bacterial enzymes. The evidence for the last of these roles is general rule, the areas of digestive tract that are the habitat summarized below. of large numbers of microorganisms are also rich in secreted sulphomucins, suggesting that these two phenomena have EVIDENCE THAT SULPHOMUCINS RATE-LIMIT become linked during evolution. The converse is not true MUCIN DEGRADATION BY BACTERIAL ENZYMES because there are other areas that secrete sulphomucins but The first line of evidence comes from the general rule that, do not have a large bacterial population, such as the submu- under normal conditions, the presence of a large bacterial cosal esophageal glands and the pancreaticobiliary epithe- population in a region of an animal digestive tract coincides 362 Can J Gastroenterol Vol 11 No 4 May/June 1997 Sulphomucins and glycosulphatases with the presence of sulphomucins. This is teleological evi- TABLE 2 dence that the two have evolved together, and the latter Sulphated sugars in mucins may be necessary to control the former. Sulphated sugar Origin Reference Second, evidence that sulphated glycopeptides inhibit N-acetylglucosamine-