Isolation from human calcium oxalate renal stones of nephrocalcin, a glycoprotein inhibitor of calcium oxalate crystal growth. Evidence that nephrocalcin from patients with calcium oxalate nephrolithiasis is deficient in gamma-carboxyglutamic acid.

We have determined that the organic matrix of calcium oxalate kidney stones contains a glycoprotein inhibitor of calcium oxalate crystal growth (nephrocalcin) that resembles nephrocalcin present in the urine of patients with calcium oxalate stones and differs from nephrocalcin from the urine of normal people. Pulverized calcium oxalate renal stones were extracted with 0.05 M EDTA, pH 8.0; nephrocalcin eluted in five peaks using DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, and each peak was further resolved by Sephacryl S-200 column chromatography. Four of the five DEAE peaks corresponded to those usually found in nephrocalcin from urine; the fifth eluted at a lower ionic strength than any found in urine. Amino acid compositions and surface properties of nephrocalcins isolated from kidney stones closely resembled those of nephrocalcins isolated from urine of stone-forming patients: they differed from normal in lacking gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues, and in forming air-water interfacial films that were less stable than those formed by nephrocalcin from normal urine.