Upon differentiation of cells, remarkable changes in the structures of glycans linked to lipids on cell surface have been observed. Lactosylceramide (Lac-Cer) serves as a common precursor for a series of glycosphingolipids with diverse structures. In the present study, we examined the underlying mechanism for the biosynthesis of Lac-Cer upon differentiation of 3T3-L1 mouse preadipocytes to adipocytes. TLC analysis showed that the amounts of Lac-Cer decrease in 3T3-L1 adipocytes compared to 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. In accordance with this change, the gene expression level of β4-galactosyltransferase (β4GalT) 5, which was identified as Lac-Cer synthase, decreased drastically upon differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. The analysis of the transcriptional mechanism of the β4GalT5 gene demonstrated that the core promoter region is identified between nucleotides -299 and -1 relative to the translational start site. During adipocyte differentiation, the expression levels and promoter activities of the β4GalT5 gene decreased dramatically. Since the Specificity protein 1 (Sp1)-binding sites in the promoter region were critical for the promoter activity, it is suggested that Sp1 plays an important role for the expression of the β4GalT5 gene in 3T3-L1 cells. The gene and protein expression of Sp1 decreased significantly upon differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Taken together, the present study suggest that the expression of the β4GalT5 gene decreases through reduced expression of the Sp1 gene and protein upon differentiation of 3T3-L1 peradipocytes to adipocytes, which may lead to the decreased amounts of Lac-Cer in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
Keywords: adipocyte; differentiation; lactosylceramide; preadipocyte; specificity protein 1; β4-galactosyltransferase 5.