Study of the Biological Functions of Mucin Type Core 3 O-glycans

Core 3 O -glycan is very short glycan structure which is composed of one N -acetylglucosamine and one N -acetylgalactosamine. The core 3 O -glycan structure is synthesized by core3 synthase (beta 1, 3-N -acetylglucosaminyltransferase 6) using UDP-N -acetylglucosamine as substrate. We revealed that the core 3 O -glycan structure modulates prostate cancer formation and gastrointestinal cell differentiation through regulating the heterodimerization of α2β1 integrin [1, 2] and cell surface expression of differentiation marker proteins [3] respectively. This chapter describes the way to determine the functions of core 3 O -glycan in tumor formation and gastrointestinal cell differentiation.