Structural studies on a glycoprotein isolated from alveoli of patients with alveolar proteinosis

A major glycoprotein 36 000 molecular weight) has been isolated from lung lavage of patients with alveolar proteinosis and found to contain five residues of hydroxyproline, fifty residues of glycine, three residues of methionine, 3 mol of sialic acid, 4.4 mol of mannose, 4.0 mol of galactose, 6.0 mol of glucosamine, and 1 mol of fucose. Cyanogen bromide (CNBr) treatment of the glycoprotein resulted, as expected, in four peptides of apparent molecular weights of 18 000, 12 000, 5000 and 1000, respectively. The chemical compositions of the CNBr peptides indicate the presence of hydroxyproline and high amounts of glycine in all but one of the peptides; two of the four CNBr peptides contain carbohydrate. Gel filtration, acrylamide gel electrophoresis and end-group analyses of the native glycoprotein and its CNBr peptides indicate that the peptides are homogeneous. End-group analyses of the CNBr cleavage products assign the 18 000 molecular weight peptide to the NH2-terminal portion and the 1000 molecular weight peptide to the COOH-terminal portion of the native glycoprotein molecule. Pronase digestion of the 36 000 molecular weight glycoprotein, followed by gel filtration and cation exchange chromatography, resulted in two fractions. One fraction was acidic and contained all the carbohydrate, a high content of aspartic acid and no hydroxyproline. The other fraction was basic and contained 8.4% hydroxyproline, 14% proline, 28% glycine and no carbohydrate, suggesting the presence of collagen-like sequence in the peptide chain. Paper electrophoresis of the basic fraction demonstrated two components, the amino acid compositions of which are identical to those of collagen. Partial amino-terminal sequence analysis of one of the CNBr peptides (18 000 molecular weight) indicated the presence of -Fly-Pro-HyP-Gly-sequence in the peptide chain, which confirms our suggestion that collagen-like regions are present in the native glycoprotein molecule. Limited acid hydrolysis of the acidic fraction and subsequent fractionation of the acid hydrolysate using Dowex column yielded a fraction which produced brown colour with ninhydrin reagent. Paper chromatography of this fraction demonstrated a large component which also stained brown with ninhydrin reagent. After acid hydrolysis, this component was found to consist of equal amounts of asparitic acid and glucosamine, indicating that the N-acetylglucosamine of the oligosaccharides is linked to the asparagine residue of the peptide. No serine or threonine linkages are present.