Marked increase in rat red blood cell membrane protein glycosylation by one-month treatment with a cafeteria diet

Background and Objectives. Glucose, an aldose, spontaneously reacts with protein amino acids yielding glycosylated proteins. The compounds may reorganize to produce advanced glycosylation products, which regulatory importance is increasingly being recognized. Protein glycosylation is produced without the direct intervention of enzymes and results in the loss of function. Glycosylated plasma albumin, and glycosylated haemoglobin are currently used as index of mean plasma glucose levels, since higher glucose availability results in higher glycosylation rates. In this study we intended to detect the early changes in blood protein glycosylation elicited by an obesogenic diet. Experimental Design. Since albumin is in constant direct contact with plasma glucose, as are the red blood cell (RBC) membranes, we analyzed their degree or glycosylation in female and male rats, either fed a standard diet or subjected to a hyper-energetic self-selected cafeteria diet for 30 days. This model produces a small increase in basal glycaemia and a significant increase in body fat, leaving the animals in the initial stages of development of metabolic syndrome. We also measured the degree of glycosylation of hemoglobin, and the concentration of glucose in contact with this protein, that within the RBC. Glycosylation was measured by colorimetric estimation of the hydroxymethylfurfural liberated from glycosyl residues by incubation with oxalate. Results. Plasma glucose was higher in cafeteria diet and in male rats, both independent effects. However, there were no significant differences induced by sex or diet in either hemoglobin or plasma proteins. Purified RBC membranes showed a marked effect of diet: higher glycosylation in cafeteria rats, which was more marked in females (not in controls). In any case, the number of glycosyl residues per molecule were higher in hemoglobin than in plasma proteins (after correction for molecular weight). The detected levels of glucose in RBC were lower than those of plasma, even when expressed in molal units, and were practically nil in cafeteria-diet fed rats compared with controls; there was no effect of sex. Conclusions. RBC membrane glycosylation is a sensitive indicator of developing metabolic syndrome-related hyperglycemia, more sensitive than the general measurement of plasma or RBC protein glycosylation. The extensive glycosylation of blood proteins does not seem to be markedly affected by sex; and could be hardly justified from an assumedly sustained plasma hyperglycemia. The low levels of glucose found within RBC, especially in rats under the cafeteria diet, could hardly justify the extensive glycosylation of hemoglobin and the lack of differences with controls, which contained sizeable levels of intracellular glucose. Additional studies are needed to study the dynamics of glucose in vivo in the RBC to understand how such extensive protein glycosylation could take place.