N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferase V and β1-6 Branching N-Linked Oligosaccharides Are Associated with Good Prognosis of Patients with Bladder Cancer

Purpose: N -acetylglucosaminyltransferase V (GnT-V) is an enzyme that catalyzes β1-6 branching of N -acetylglucosamine on asparagine ( N )-linked oligosaccharides ( N -glycan) of cell proteins. We examined the relationship between GnT-V expression and clinicopathologic features of the patients with bladder cancer. Experimental Design: We immunohistochemically examined GnT-V expression in paraffin-embedded bladder cancer specimen using anti-GnT-V monoclonal antibody. We compared GnT-V expression with cause-specific survival of the patients with bladder cancer treated by radical cystectomy. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated to show the cause-specific survival. Univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to compare GnT-V expression with other clinical and pathologic variables. We also evaluated mRNA expression of GnT-V and N -linked oligosaccharide structure in bladder cancer specimens. Results: Immunohistochemistry revealed that GnT-V expression inversely correlated with tumor grade and stage. The incidence of positive GnT-V expression in bladder cancer was significantly higher in low-grade/superficial cancer than in high-grade/invasive cancer. The patients whose tumor was positive for GnT-V survived significantly longer than those whose tumor was negative for GnT-V. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that GnT-V expression was an independent predictor of prognosis of the patient. The expression of GnT-V mRNA determined by reverse transcription-PCR was consistent with the results with immunohistochemistry for tumor samples. Carbohydrate structural analysis revealed that superficial bladder cancer is rich in branched N -linked oligosaccharides, for which biosynthesis GnT-V is responsible. Conclusions: GnT-V and its resultant β1-6 branching N -linked oligosaccharides are closely related to low malignant potential and good prognosis of the patients with bladder cancer.