Glycosylation Changes Triggered by the Differentiation of Monocytic THP-1 Cell Line into Macrophages

The human acute monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1 is widely used as an in vitro phagocytic cell model because it exhibits several immune properties similar to native monocyte-derived macrophages. In this study, we investigated the alteration of N- and O-linked glycans as well as glycosphingolipids, during THP-1 differentiation, combining mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, and quantitative real-time PCR. Mass spectrometry revealed that macrophage differentiation led to a marked upregulation of expression of GM3 ganglioside as well as an increase in complex-type structures, particularly triantennary glycans, occurring at the expense of high-mannose N-glycans. Moreover, we observed a slight decrease in the proportion of multifucosylated N-glycans and α2,6-sialylation. The uncovered changes in glycosylation correlated with variations of gene expression of relevant glycosyltransferases and glycosidases including sialyltransferases, β-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferases, fucosyltransferases, and neuraminidase. Fu...