Isolation of the major glycoprotein from plasma membranes of an ascites hepatoma AH 66.

Plasma membranes were isolated from AH 66 cells, some of which had been labeled with [14C]glucosamine, by the following procedure: homogenization of cells which had been hardened by treatment with Zn ions, fractionation of the homogenate by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and purification of the membranes by partition in an aqueous two-phase polymer system. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) of the plasma membranes and subsequent staining of the gel for protein and carbohydrate, and determination of radioactivity on the gel eluates indicated the presence of at least 10 bands of glycoproteins. The major band contained 27% of the total radioactivity incorporated into the plasma membranes and was most heavily stained with the periodate-Schiff reagent. To isolate the major glycoprotein, the membranes were solubilized with 0.6 M lithium diiodosalicylate containing 0.5% Triton X-100, then the solution was treated with phenol. The major glycoprotein, obtained in the aqueous phase, was further purified mainly by repeated chromatographies on Sepharose 6B. The purified preparation was practically homogeneous on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, as judged by radioactivity determination and by carbohydrate staining, but contained small amounts of carbohydrate-free proteins. The major glycoprotein had an apparent molecular weight of 160,000, as determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The final preparation contained about 44% carbohydrate on a weight basis, and the carbohydrate moiety was composed of glucosamine, galactosamine, galactose, mannose, fucose, and sialic acid. This composition indicates that the major glycoprotein contains both N- and O-glycosidically linked oligosaccharide moieties.