Spontaneous shedding of plasma membrane fragments by human cells in vivo and in vitro.

Human duodenal fluid, secretion fluid of a villous adenoma of the rectum, urine and culture medium of HeLa cells contain plasma membrane fragments which can be revealed by electrophoresis in different media, gel filtration on Sepharose 4-B, electron microscopy and cytochemistry. They carry plasma membrane enzymes (alkaline phosphatase EC 3.1.3.1, leucine aminopeptidase EC 3.4.1.1, 5'-nucleotidase EC 3.1.3.5, maltase EC 3.2.1.20) in the same ratio as the membranes of the cells of origin. Equilibrium density centrifugation results in recovery of these plasma membrane fragments at density 1.190 (g/ml) in CsCl, 1.165 (g/ml) in sucrose, and 1.135 (g/ml) in metrizamide. Similar plasma membrane fragments were decribed previously in the serum of certain liver patients. These observations give evidence that shedding of whole plasma membrane fragments (koinozymic shedding) is a widespread feature of viable cells.