Characterization of fibronectin interactions with glycosaminoglycans and identification of active proteolytic fragments.

Fibronectin is a major cell-surface glycoprotein which has been reported to interact with glycosaminoglycans. A nitrocellulose filter-binding assay was developed to quantitate these interactions at physiological pH and ionic strength. Fibronectin isolated from chick embryo fibroblasts binds both hyaluronic acid and heparin; heparan sulfate is bound less efficiently, and chondroitin sulfate and glycopeptides are bound minimally. The binding of hyaluronic acid and heparin to fibronectin is saturable and reversible and occurs at separate binding sites. The binding of both molecules to fibronectin is not blocked by EDTA or by other glycosaminoglycans, and is only moderately inhibited by elevated ionic strength. Scatchard analyses revealed nonlinear, high affinity binding to fibronectin with a KD of approximately 10(-7) to 10(-8) M for these glycosaminoglycans. The affinity for heparin was utilized for the isolation of heparin-binding domains of fibronectin on heparin-agarose affinity columns. Heparin-binding proteolytic fragments with apparent molecular weights of 160,000 and 50,000 were isolated following hydrolysis of fibronectin by chymotrypsin or pronase, respectively. The possible involvement of such high affinity binding sites of fibronectin in the binding of glycosaminoglycans to the cell surface or in the organization of extracellular matrices is discussed.