The down-regulation of the ␣-Gal epitope (Gal␣1,3Gal-R) in swine tissues would be highly desirable, in terms of preventing hyperacute rejection in pigto-human xenotransplantation. In an earlier study, we reported that the introduction of the 1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (GnT) III gene into swine endothelial cells resulted in a substantial reduction in the expression of the ␣-Gal epitope. In this study, we report on the mechanism for this down-regulation of the ␣-Gal epitope by means of structural and kinetic analyses. The structural analyses revealed that the amount of Nlinked oligosaccharides bearing the ␣-Gal epitopes in the GnT-III-transfected cells was less than 10% that in parental cells, due to the alteration of the terminal structures as well as a decrease in branch formation. In addition, it appeared that the addition of a bisecting GlcNAc, which is catalyzed by GnT-III, leads to a more efficient sialylation rather than ␣-galactosylation. In vitro kinetic analyses showed that the bisecting GlcNAc has an inhibitory effect on ␣-galactosylation, but does not significantly affect the sialylation. These results suggest that the bisecting GlcNAc in the core is capable of modifying the biosynthesis of the terminal structures via its differential effects on the capping glycosyltransferase reactions. The findings may contribute to the development of a novel strategy to eliminate carbohydrate xenoantigens.