Study of Global Transcriptional Changes of N-GlcNAc2 Proteins-Producing T24 Bladder Carcinoma Cells under Glucose Deprivation

Increased levels of N-linked (β-N- acetylglucosamine)2 [N-GlcNAc2]-modified proteins have been recognized to be an effective response to glucose deprivation. In the first step of this study, using a next generation sequencer, we investigated the global transcriptional changes induced by glucose deprivation in a T24 bladder carcinoma cell line, producing N-GlcNAc2-modified proteins under glucose deprivation. Our transcriptome analysis revealed significant up-regulation of the UDP-GlcNAc biosynthesis pathway and unfolded protein response genes, and down-regulation of G2/M transition-related genes containing mitotic kinases. Our biological analysis confirmed that N-GlcNAc2-modified proteins were localized with BiP proteins in the ER. G2/M arrest was caused by glucose deprivation in T24 cells. Moreover, the knockdown of unfolded protein response genes induced the expressional recovery of mitotic kinases under glucose deprivation. Taken together, our results suggest N-GlcNAc2-modified proteins produced under glucose deprivation caused unfolded protein response in the ER, and that this response induced G2/M arrest.