Relief of temperature sensitivity in a concanavalin A resistant Chinese hamster ovary cell line auxotrophic for cholesterol

Abstract

The concanavalin A resistant, glycosylation-deficient, Chinese hamster ovary cell variant CR-7 is auxotrophic for cholesterol owing to an inability to adequately convert lanosterol to cholesterol. It is also temperature sensitive for growth, being unable to proliferate at 39 °C. Temperature sensitivity was relieved by addition of mevalonolactone, dolichol, or dolichyl-P to the growth medium, provided that cholesterol was also present in amounts sufficient to overcome cholesterol auxotrophy at 34 °C. Other metabolites of mevalonolactone (squalene, ubiquinone, lanosterol, and isopentenyladenine) were inactive in this regard. Measurement of dolichol levels in CR-7 and wild-type cells at 34 °C and after exposure to 39 °C showed that dolichol increased at 39 °C to an approximately equal extent in both cell types. Dolichol, dolichyl-P, ubiquinone, and isopentenyladenine had no effect on the sensitivity of either wild-type or CR-7 cells to the cytotoxic effects of concanavalin A. Mevalonolactone or lanosterol markedly increased the resistance of CR-7 to the lectin, but had no effect on wild-type cells. This raises the possibility that the presence of unusually large amounts of lanosterol, coupled with low amounts of cholesterol, in the membranes of CR-7 may be related to its concanavalin A resistance and other characteristic phenotypic abnormalities.