Heterogeneity between brain and pituitary corticotropin-releasing factor receptors is due to differential glycosylation.

Chemical affinity cross-linking studies have identified brain and pituitary CRF receptors with similar pharmacological characteristics but different mol wts (anterior pituitary, 75,000; brain, 58,000). In order to determine whether the heterogeneous nature of CRF receptors was inherent in the protein, we examined the glycoprotein nature of both types of CRF receptors using lectin affinity chromatography and treatments with exo- and endoglycosidases. CRF receptors in both the cerebral cortex and anterior pituitary adsorbed to and specifically eluted from Concanavalin-A- and wheat germ agglutinin-immobilized lectin affinity columns, indicating that both forms of the receptor are glycoproteins containing complex and high-mannose carbohydrate moieties. Cerebral cortical CRF receptors were sensitive to both neuraminidase and alpha-mannosidase treatment while pituitary CRF receptors were only affected by neuraminidase treatment, suggesting that CRF receptors in brain and pituitary differed slightly in the nature of their glycosylation units. After treatment of cerebral cortical or anterior pituitary CRF receptors with the endoglycosidase, N-glycanase, the mol wts were markedly decreased; the mol wt of the anterior pituitary CRF receptor was decreased from 75,000 to approximately 40,000-45,000 while in a corresponding manner, the cortical receptor was decreased from 58,000 to approximately 40,000-45,000. Limited proteolysis after deglycosylation with N-glycanase using the proteinases Staphylococcus aureus V8 (S. aureus V8) or papain, generated virtually identical peptide fragments from anterior pituitary- or cerebral cortex- labeled CRF receptor proteins. In summary, these data support the hypothesis that the ligand binding subunit of the CRF receptor in both brain and pituitary resides on a polypeptide of 40,000-45,000 and appears to be identical in both tissues. Differences observed in the mobility of the two proteins were found to be due to differences in the posttranslational modification of the proteins in the two tissues.