First person – Wenhong Li

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Wenhong Li is first author on ‘Differential cellular responses to adhesive interactions with galectin-8- and fibronectin-coated substrates’, published in JCS. Wenhong is a PhD student in the lab of Prof. Alexander Bershadsky and Prof. Benjamin Geiger at the Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, investigating cell spreading on an animal lectin, galectin-8.

Biological Applications of a Chimeric Probe for the Assessment of Galectin-3 Ligands

β1–6 branching of N-linked oligosaccharides has been correlated with the progression of different cancers. The leukoagglutinins of Phaseolus vulgaris (L-PHA) have been used to study this pattern of glycosylation whose biological significance is incompletely understood. The animal lectin, galectin-3, also binds to structures recognized by L-PHA. To develop a functional tool for the in situ identification of this pattern of glycosylation, human galectin-3 was fused to bacterial alkaline phosphatase (gal3/AP). Gal3/AP recognized both A and B blood group saccharides (B>A) and lactosamine derivatives. Gal3/AP recognition depended at least in part on the N-linked oligosaccharides of different glycoproteins. The presence and distribution of galectin-3 ligands were analyzed in both murine and human normal and tumor samples. Loss of apical expression of galectin-3 ligands was commonly found in carcinomas. Endothelial and inflammatory cells were enriched in galectin-3 ligands as compared with tumor cells; thus, gal3/AP is a suitable tool for studying tumor micro-environments. Comparative analysis of both gal3/AP and L-PHA binding patterns indicated that although similar, these patterns are not identical. The probe developed was useful for several immunoenzymatic assays and will allow the physiological and clinical significance of the expression pattern of galectin-3 ligands to be established. This manuscript contains online supplemental material at http:/www.jhc.org . Please visit this article online to view these materials. (J Histochem Cytochem 55: 1015–1026, 2007)

Investigations of asialoglycoprotein receptor glycosylation by lectin affinity methods

The asialoglycoprotein receptor belongs to the family of calcium-dependent (C-type) animal lectins. The purified receptor is a glycoprotein in which 10 % of the dry weight consists of sialic acid, galactose, N-acetylglucosamine and mannose. The carbohydrate content of the asialoglycoprotein receptor was investigated by lectin affinity methods. The usefulness of plant lectin affinity methods in the characterization of the saccharide content of the asialoglycoprotein receptor, as an animal lectin, is demonstrated. RCA I ConA, PHA, SNA I and WGA showed greater affinity toward the asialoglycoprotein receptor, while PSL, AAA and PNA showed negligible interactions with the asialoglycoprotein receptor. The obtained results correlated well with the carbohydrate content of the asialoglycoprotein receptor as determined by chemical methods.