Cell spreading on serum is not identical to spreading on fibronectin.

Adhesion and spreading of cell lines on dishes coated with serum-derived proteins were studied after removal of cell-surface proteoglycans. A mixture of glycosaminoglycans lyases from heparin-induced Flavobacterium heparinum removed 80% of the [35S]sulphate-labelled glycosaminoglycans from the surface of attached cells within 30 min, but this had little effect on cell morphology. The rate of cell attachment to dishes coated with serum was unaffected by prior treatment of cells with this mixture of glycosaminoglycan lyases. While a heparan sulphate lyase preparation abolished cell spreading in response to fibronectin there was no effect of the enzyme on the spreading mediated by vitronectin. These results suggest that, although heparan sulphate is required for spreading on purified fibronectin, the spreading stimulated by serum under routine culture conditions requires neither cellular heparan sulphate nor serum-derived fibronectin.