Effect of colostrinin, an immunomodulatory proline-rich polypeptide from ovine colostrum, on sialidase and beta-galactosidase activities in murine thymocytes.

Colostrinin: a proline-rich polypeptide (PRP) from ovine colostrum and its nonapeptide active fragment (NP) induce maturation and differentiation of murine thymocytes, formation of helper cells from PNAhigh thymocytes and cytotoxic T cells from PNAlow thymocytes. These processes are accompanied by changes in expression of receptors for peanut agglutinin (PNA), PNAhigh thymocytes were transformed into PNAlow cells, and vice versa. It was shown, in various laboratories, that sialyltransferases are involved in the transformation of PNAhigh thymocytes into PNAlow cells. To find out whether the expression of receptors for PNA on murine thymocytes might also be influenced by other enzymes, we decided to study the effect of PRP and NP on sialidase and beta-galactosidase activities in these cells. The results obtained showed that the most of sialidase activity of murine thymocytes is present in the plasma membrane compartments. Both thymocyte subpopulations PNAhigh and PNAlow, showed similar sialidase activity, which was not affected either by PRP or NP. In contrast to sialidases, most of beta-galactosidase activity was present in the cytosol. PNAhigh, thymocytes showed a higher beta-galactosidase activity than PNAlow cells. Incubation of immature, PNAhigh, thymocytes with PRP or NP enhanced the beta-galactosidase activity in these cells. The presented results suggest that sialidases seem not to be involved in modulation of surface sialic acid content during murine thymocyte maturation. On the other hand, stimulation of activity of beta-galactosidase in PNAhigh, immature thymocytes by PRP and NP suggests that beta-galactosidase in murine thymocytes might be involved in transformation of PNAhigh into PNAlow cells.