Selective sugar binding to the carbohydrate recognition domains of the rat hepatic and macrophage asialoglycoprotein receptors.

Asialoglycoprotein receptors on the surfaces of both hepatocytes and peritoneal macrophages bind terminal galactose residues of desialylated glycoproteins and mediate endocytosis and eventual degradation of these ligands. The hepatic receptor binds oligosaccharides with terminal N-acetylgalactosamine residues more tightly than ligands with terminal galactose residues, but the macrophage receptor shows no such differential binding affinity. Carbohydrate recognition domains from the macrophage receptor and the major subunit of the hepatic receptor have been expressed in a bacterial system and have been shown to retain the distinct binding selectivities of the receptors from which they derive. Binding of a series of N-acyl derivatives of galactosamine suggests that the 2-substituent of these sugars interacts with the surface of the hepatic receptor with highest affinity binding observed for the N-propionyl derivative. Chimeric sugar-binding domains have been used to identify three regions of the hepatic receptor that are essential for establishing selectivity for N-acetylgalactosamine over galactose. Based on these results and the orientation of N-acetylgalactosamine when bound to an homologous galactose-binding mutant of rat serum mannose-binding protein, a fourth region likely to interact with N-acetylgalactosamine has been identified and probed by site-directed mutagenesis. The results of these studies define a binding pocket for the 2-substituent of N-acetylgalactosamine in the hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor.