Newly synthesized glycoconjugates from two cell lines derived from rat osteogenic sarcoma: effects of Matrigenin activity from bone.

An activity isolated from bovine bone was previously shown to stimulate proteoglycan synthesis by several connective tissue cell lines from normal tissues (Matrigenin activity). The effect of this activity on glycoconjugate synthesis by two osteoblastic cell lines, ROS 17/2 and UMR-106, derived from rat osteogenic sarcoma, was examined after labelling of the cells with [3H]glucosamine and [35S]sulfate. The glycoconjugates from the cell layers and the media were separated by DEAE-Sephacel chromatography and the anionic glycoconjugates of the media were further analyzed by chromatography on Sepharose CL-2B and enzymatic digestion of the papain-released glycosaminoglycans. The ROS 17/2 cells secreted at least two distinct species of proteoglycan (one heparan sulfate rich and the other chondroitin sulfate rich), whereas the UMR-106 secreted primarily an anionic glycoprotein. The addition of Matrigenin activity to the ROS 17/2 cells resulted in stimulation of incorporation of radioactivity into the proteoglycan and hyaluronic acid, but in UMR-106 cultures it resulted in decreased incorporation into the anionic glycoprotein. The decrease in incorporation into the anionic glycoprotein from the medium was shown, by alkaline beta-elimination, to have occurred mainly in the oligosaccharide fraction, relative to control cultures.