Increasing intracellular mannose-6-phosphate (Man-6-P) was previously reported to reduce the amount of the major lipid linked oligosaccharide (LLO) precursor of N-glycans; a loss that might decrease cellular N-glycosylation. If so, providing dietary mannose supplements to glycosylation-deficient patients might further impair their glycosylation. To address this question, we studied the effects of exogenous mannose on intracellular levels of Man-6-P, LLO, and N-glycosylation in human and mouse fibroblasts. Mannose (500microM) did not increase Man-6-P pools in human fibroblasts from controls or from patients with Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG), who have 90-95% deficiencies in either phosphomannomutase (CDG-Ia) or phosphomannose isomerase (MPI) (CDG-Ib), enzymes that both use Man-6-P as a substrate. In the extreme case of fibroblasts derived from Mpi null mice (<0.001% MPI activity), intracellular Man-6-P levels greatly increased in response to exogenous mannose, and this produced a dose-dependent decrease in the steady state level of the major LLO precursor. However, LLO loss did not decrease total protein N-glycosylation or that of a hypoglycosylation indicator protein, DNaseI. These results make it very unlikely that exogenous mannose could impair N-glycosylation in glycosylation-deficient CDG patients.