Demonstration in human plasma of a lectin activity analogous to that of bovine conglutinin.

Evidence of the existence in human plasma of an activity analogous to that of bovine conglutinin is presented. The human plasma component was characterized antigenically and functionally. Human plasma was shown to agglutinate complement-coated erythrocytes in the presence of Ca2+, and this conglutination was inhibited by EDTA. The molecule also binds to complement-reacted solid phase IgG and to zymosan in the presence of Ca2+. The binding to complement is not inhibited by N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, but is inhibited by N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, as previously shown for bovine conglutinin. Antibodies raised against bovine conglutinin cross-react with the human protein. The plasma concentration of the conglutinin-like protein showed a high inter-individual variation between apparently healthy donors. Unlike bovine conglutinin, the human conglutinin activity could not be demonstrated in serum but only in plasma. The activity was more stable in plasma containing metal-ion chelators like EDTA and citrate than in heparin or hirudin plasma.

Serum protein changes in cafeteria mice induced by starvation.

Serum protein changes in cafeteria and control mice induced by starvation have been studied. Animals were subjected to food deprivation at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 or 36 hours. Results show a more stabilized situation in cafeteria mice than controls particularly in protein metabolism. Serum protein composition changed very little during starvation, suggests a lower protein and amino acid catabolism induced by the high adaptation to consume lipids.

Guinea pig plasma murinoglobulin. Purification and some properties.

Murinoglobulin, a newly identified mouse plasma protein resembling alpha-macroglobulins [Saito, A. & Sinohara, H. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 775-781], was also found in guinea pig plasma, and purified to homogeneity. Guinea pig murinoglobulin consisted of a single 180-kDa polypeptide chain containing about 18% carbohydrate. It inhibited the proteolytic activities of trypsin and thermolysin towards Remazol brilliant blue hide powder, but stimulated the amidolytic activities of trypsin and Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease towards small synthetic substrates. Heat treatment of murinoglobulin completely abolished the former activities, but partially retained the latter activities. The ability of guinea pig murinoglobulin to inhibit the proteolysis was much weaker than that of the mouse homologue. On interaction with trypsin, murinoglobulin underwent cleavage of one susceptible bond with concomitant unmasking of one thiol group. Methylamine treatment also released one thiol group per molecule.

Assay characteristics and fibrin affinity of plasminogen activators of the intrinsic fibrinolytic system.

Plasminogen activators (PA) in the euglobulin fraction of dextran sulfate activated plasma (DS-EF) were assayed on fibrin plates. Activity related to tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) or urokinase (u-PA) was quantified by antiserum inhibition. The DS-EF contained 30% t-PA, 30% u-PA and 40-50% activity unrelated to t-PA or u-PA. The latter was completely inhibited by 1.7 mumol/1 C1-inhibitor (C1INH), the two former were less sensitive. Addition of flufenamate to the DS-EF (DS-EF/Fluf) from normal and two factor XII (F XII)-deficient plasmas increased their activities to the same high level. More than 50% of the activity was unrelated to t-PA or u-PA, 30-40% was u-PA and 5-10% t-PA related. After addition of fibrinogen to DS-EF/Fluf and clotting with thrombin, the remaining solution contained only about 30% of the total activity, including less than 10% u-PA. The epsilon-aminocaproic acid inhibition pattern obtained with the DS-EF was uniform, and thus different from the biphasic pattern obtained with the low fibrin affinity PA, two-chain urokinase. Thus, both the plasma u-PA and the major unidentified PA in plasma have affinity for fibrin.

Mannan-binding protein and conglutinin in bovine serum.

Conglutinin is a bovine plasma protein which mediates the agglutination of the sensitized erythrocyte-solid phase iC3b complex (conglutination). The serum mannan-binding protein (MBP) is a lectin specific for mannose and N-acetylglucosamine. Since conglutination was shown to be inhibited specifically by N-acetylglucosamine [Leon, M.A. & Yokohari, R. (1964) Science 143, 1327-1328], the possibility was raised that conglutinin might be a bovine serum MBP. The present study, undertaken to solve this problem, revealed that bovine plasma contained an MBP besides conglutinin. These two proteins were very similar in their chemical and physicochemical properties as well as binding specificity. Both bound with high affinity (Kd = 10(-8) M) to glycoproteins terminated with mannose and/or N-acetylglucosamine residues in the presence of calcium, although conglutinin preferred N-acetylglucosamine rather than mannose. They were multimeric proteins of large molecular size (over 1,000,000 daltons, and approximately 600,000 daltons for conglutinin and MBP, respectively) and consisted of a single kind of subunit with molecular weight of around 45,000. The MBP was shown to have a collagen-like structure in the molecule, as was recently reported for conglutinin [Davis, A.E., III & Lachmann, P.J. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 2139-2144]. Despite these similarities, the MBP and conglutinin were immunochemically distinct, and the MBP did not show any conglutination activity.