An antigenic antimorphogenetic bone hydrophobic glycopeptide (AHG)

A hydrophobic glycopeptide, isolated from fresh marrow-free cortical bone of the rat, extinguished the bone morphogenetic response of insoluble bone matrix gelatin which otherwise invariably produces new bone from migrating mesenchymal cells after implantation in muscle of the rat. Incubation of the 10 to 100 mug of the glycopeptide per milligram of bone gelatin in phosphate or Tris-HCl buffer, pH = 7.4, for 24 hours recombines the hydrophobic polypeptide and gelatin. Incubated with doses of 50 to 100 mug, implants of gelatin in Sprague-Dawley recipients are rapidly resorbed by a lymphocyte-plasma cell-macrophage infiltrate without developing any new bone. With 10 to 20 mug, infiltrate appears and bone develops inversely in proportion to the dose. Bone develops at all dose levels only when bone matrix gelatin and glycopeptide were prepared from an inbred strain of Lewis rats and recipients were of the same strain, and thereby suggests that only allogeneic AHG, produces an antigenic antimorphogenetic resonse. The glycopeptide was isolated from bone together with lipids and other hydrophobic proteins or polypeptides by chloroform-methanol (1:1) extraction and further purified by chromatography on ion-exchange columns and molecular sieves. The molecular weight established by Sephadex G-100 filtration and by calibrated dialysis is about 5000 daltons. Analysis of the biologically active fraction shows 75% of proteinaceous material and close to 25% carbohydrate with trace amounts of hexosamines and sialic acid. Amino acid analysis shows high levels of alanine, valine and leucine in comparison to other chloroform-methanol extractable but immunogenically relatively-inactive fractions.