Presence of the basement membrane component--heparan sulfate proteoglycan--in bovine lens capsules.

Heparan sulfate proteoglycan was extracted from bovine lens capsules by 0.45 M NaCl/2 M urea and purified using ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The proteoglycan was found to consist of protein and carbohydrate in a ratio of 75 to 25. The estimated average molecular weight of the heparan sulfate proteoglycan eluted by 0.2 M NaCl on a diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose column was 400 kilodaltons (kDa) and that of its glycosaminoglycan was 18.8 kDa. The amino acid composition of the proteoglycan was quite similar to that of the bovine glomelular basement membrane.