Characterization of multiple forms of lactophorin isolated from bovine milk whey.

A glycoprotein that reacted to the antisoluble glycoprotein of bovine milk fat globule membrane was purified from the proteose-peptone of whey and designated lactophorin. Lactophorin was separated into seven components. Lactophorin and the seven components were rich in aspartic acid, threonine, serine, glutamic acid, leucine, and lysine. The content of threonine, glycine, isoleucine, lysine, and arginine varied in each component. The ratio of fucose, mannose, galactose, N-acetylgalactosamine, N-acetylglucosamine, and sialic acid of lactophorin, which contains about 18% saccharide, were 1, 6.6, 10.3, 5.5, 9.7, and 11.6, respectively, while the respective ratio of the seven components were 1, 5 to 6, 7 to 9, 3 to 4, 6 to 8, and 4 to 12. Sialic acid content varied in each component. Protein-carbohydrate linkage was N- and o-glucoside linkage. Lactophorin consisted of seven polypeptides (I to VII) with apparent molecular weights 17,000 to 67,000. Bands I, II, VI, and VII were glycoprotein. Bands VI and VII were major and had antigenicity to anti-soluble glycoprotein, while bands I to V were minor polypeptides. Component 1 consisted of only one polypeptide (VII), whereas the components 2 to 7 contained two major (VI, VII, or both) and several minor polypeptides. The sedimentation pattern of each component was a single and almost symmetrical peak. Sedimentation coefficient was 3.79 to 5.64 S and also varied in lactophorin. The results indicate that lactophorin has multiple forms.