Cell-associated proteoheparan sulfate from bovine arterial smooth muscle cells

Cell-associated proteoheparan sulfate has been isolated from bovine arterial smooth muscle cells preincubated with [35S]sulfate or a combination of [3H]glucosamine and [35S]methionine. The purified proteoheparan sulfate had an apparent Mr of 200,000 on calibrated Sepharose CL-2B columns. The glycosaminoglycan component (Mr approximately 30,000) was identified as heparan sulfate by its susceptibility to specific enzymatic and chemical degradation. After degradation of the proteoheparan sulfate by microbial heparitinase the resulting protein core had an apparent Mr of 92,000 on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Its mobility was similar in the absence and presence of reducing agents indicating that the protein core consists of a single polypeptide chain. Pulse-chase experiments revealed that about 40% of the cell layer-associated proteoheparan sulfate was released into the medium, while the remainder was internalized and converted to smaller species through a series of degradation steps. Initially there was a proteolytical cleavage of the protein core generating glycosaminoglycan peptide intermediates with polysaccharides chains similar in size to the original. The half-life of the native proteoheparan sulfate was found to be about 4 h.