Integral membrane glycoproteins related to cell-substratum adhesion in mammalian cells.

Broad spectrum antisera have been raised against surface membrane-derived material from baby hamster kidney cells and mouse mammary tumor epithelial cells. These antisera disrupt cell-substratum adhesion in their respective cell types. Using an antibody neutralization (blocking) assay, adhesion-related glycoproteins have been isolated from non-ionic detergent extracts of each cell type. The purified material in each case consisted of a restricted population of glycoproteins of approximately 120,000-160,000 Mr. Purified material from each system blocked the disruption of adhesion induced by the heterologous antiserum on either cell type. The antisera were capable of disrupting cell-substratum adhesion of a large number of cell types and species sources. In addition, antibody blocking activity could be detected from partially purified extracts of several adult hamster cell types and a variety of cultured cell types. Thus, in addition to having similar substratum-associated glycoproteins ((eg, fibronectin) and cytoskeleton-associated proteins (eg, alpha-actinin and vinculin) cells from different species and tissue sources appear to have a relatively conserved class of integral membrane glycoproteins involved in cell substratum-adhesion.