Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Induces Aberrant Glycosylation through Hexosamine Biosynthetic Pathway Activation.

ABSTRACT: Deregulated cellular metabolism is a hallmark of tumors. Cancer cells increase glucose and glutamine flux to provide energy needs and macromolecular synthesis demands. Several studies have been focused on the importance of glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway. However, a neglected but very important branch of glucose metabolism is the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP). The HBP is a branch of the glucose metabolic pathway that consumes ∼2-5% of the total glucose, generating UDP-GlcNAc as the end product. UDP-GlcNAc is the donor substrate used in multiple glycosylation reactions. Thus, HBP links the altered metabolism with aberrant glycosylation providing a mechanism for cancer cells to sense and respond to microenvironment changes. Here, we investigate the changes of glucose metabol

SUBMITTER: Lucena MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4933211 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature