Establishment of a simple detection system for blood group ABO-specific transferase activity in DNA-transfected cells.

Chiyomi Nishida, Chiharu Nishiyama, Koichi Satoh, Mutsuko Hara, Yukio Itoh, Hideoki Ogawa, Ko Okumura

Department of Forensic Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) 2010 Jul

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A/B-transferase is a glycosyltransferase that transfers a sugar substrate onto H-antigen resulting in the synthesis of glycoproteins and glycolipids termed A/B-antigens. The ABO blood group (ABO) gene encoding A/B-transferase possesses numerous polymorphisms affecting the specificity and/or activity of the enzyme. The relationship between genotype and phenotype is very complicated, except for those of some critical polymorphisms. In order to establish a system for evaluating the effect of each polymorphism on the transferase function, an A- or B-transferase cDNA expressing vector was introduced into HeLa cells, a cell line that do not possess endogenous A/B-transferase activity. We successfully detected substrate-specific transferase activity in the cells and in the culture medium. Furthermore, in three different assays, each corresponding A- or B-antigen was detected in the transfectants with high sensitivity. Accordingly, the present study demonstrates a possibility that A/B-transferase variants may be characterized by using this method. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Chiyomi Nishida, Chiharu Nishiyama, Koichi Satoh, Mutsuko Hara, Yukio Itoh, Hideoki Ogawa, Ko Okumura. Establishment of a simple detection system for blood group ABO-specific transferase activity in DNA-transfected cells. Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan). 2010 Jul;12(4):172-6