Role of cell surface glycosylation in mediating repair of human airway epithelial cell monolayers

Our laboratory recently demonstrated the pattern of cell surface glycosylation of nonsecretory central airway epithelium (Dorscheid DR, Conforti AE, Hamann KJ, Rabe KF, and White SR. Histochem J 31:145-151,1999), but the role of glycosylation in airway epithelial cell migration and repair is unknown. We examined the functional role of cell surface carbohydrates in wound repair after mechanical injury of 1HAEo(-) human airway epithelial and primary bronchial epithelial monolayers. Wound repair stimulated by epidermal growth factor was substantially attenuated by 10(-7) M tunicamycin (TM), an N-glycosylation inhibitor, but not by the inhibitors deoxymannojirimycin or castanospermine. Wound repair of 1HAEo(-) and primary airway epithelial cells was blocked completely by removal of cell surface terminal fucose residues by alpha -fucosidase. Cell adhesion to collagen matrix was prevented by TM but was only reduced similar to 20% from control values with prior alpha -fucosidase treatment. Cell migration in Blind Well chambers stimulated by epidermal growth factor was blocked by pretreatment with TM but alpha -fucosidasse pretreatment produced no difference from control values. These data suggest that cell surface N-glycosylation has a. functional role in airway epithelial cell adhesion and migration and that N-glycosylation with terminal fucosylation plays a role in the complex process of repair by coordination of certain cell-cell functions.