Figure 7

Ganglioside metabolism and connections with ERK1/2. (A) This diagram shows the conversion of LacCer to the ganglioside GM3 by ST3GAL5 (and then to GD3 upon α-2,8-sialylation and to 9-O-AcGD3 upon O-acetylation); both GM3 and GD3 are converted back to LacCer by NEU3. (B) Western blots of ERK1/2 and pERK1/2 from control and IL-6-treated hEBD LVEC cells (for 30 min) show reduced ERK1/2 phosphorylation at concentrations > 4 ng/ml (as quantified by densitometry and shown as a ratio of pERK1/2 to ERK in Panel C). (D) IL-6 treated cells exhibited increased levels of NEU3 mRNA and decreased levels of ST3GAL5 mRNA after 24 h (error bars represent SD for n ≥ 3 independent experiments and p < 0.05 for both data sets).