Studies on human pregnancy-associated plasma protein A. Purification by affinity chromatography and structural comparisons with alpha 2-macroglobulin.

Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) has been purified by a combination of methods including antibody-affinity chromatography. The resultant protein, obtained in 16% yield from maternal serum, appeared as a single major component on non-denaturing polyacrylamide and SDS/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The protein showed a single component when analysed by isoelectric focusing under denaturing conditions in the presence and absence of reduction and had a pI of 4.34 and 4.42 respectively. These pI values were indistinguishable from those of alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M). The molecular weight of the PAPP-A polypeptide as shown by SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis was 187000, with a minor component of mol.wt. 82500 that was attributed to proteolysis. Since native PAPP-A had a molecular weight on gel chromatography very similar to that of alpha 2M (620000--820000), it was concluded that PAPP-A was a homotetramer. In the absence of reduction, a high-molecular-weight (420000) protomer of PAPP-A was found. It was deduced that PAPP-A, like alpha 2M, is a dinner, whose protomers are composed of disulphide-linked polypeptide chains. It was found that the molecular weight of the PAPP-A polypeptide exceeded that of alpha 2M by 3.3%, but that the total carbohydrate content of PAPP-A exceeded that of alpha 2M by 10% and that its neutral carbohydrate content exceeded that of alpha 2M by between 7.4 and 9.0%. The significance of the estimated molecular weights of alpha 2M (181000) and its major tryptic fragments is discussed in the light of published values. A tryptic fragment alpha 2M (82500 mol.wt.) was apparently the same size as the major tryptic fragment of PAPP-A.