The relative rates of degradation of the plasma membrane glycoproteins from normal rat liver.

Rat liver plasma membranes, as fractionated by sodium dodecylsulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, have been examined for the incorporation in their subunits of radioactive leucine, glucosamine and fucose. Specific spectra were obtained. In contrast to leucine, where the activity is distributed in many peaks all over the fractions, the glucosamine and fucose activities are found principally in the high molecular weight region. The relative rates of degradation of the glycoprotein components of the plasma membrane have been measured in normal liver using the double isotope technique. A marked heterogeneity of degradation was observed among the different subunits and a correlation between the rate of degradation and the size of the labelled subunits was found with glucosamine and fucose as well with leucine. This suggests a similar mode for the degradation of these membrane components.