Isolation and characterization of a rat lung fraction enriched in alveolar wall basement membranes

Separation of lung alveolar basement membranes from interstitial connective tissue protein has proved difficult, and a pure preparation of alveolar wall basement membranes (AWBM) is not available. We have modified a technique employing the detergent Triton X-100 for isolating AWBM from rat lungs by adding a step utilizing human skin collagenase (HSC), a highly purified enzyme obtained from skin fibroblasts that specifically cleaves non-basement membrane collagens. Triton extraction of both lungs yields 15-20 mg of basement membrane-enriched material referred to as crude fraction (CF). Ultrastructural studies show that CF includes both epithelial and endothelial basement membranes that appear similar to their in vivo counterparts and contain heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Extraction of type IV collagen is documented by the appearance of highly glycosylated hydroxylysine. This CF contains minimal amounts of contaminating elastin but significant amounts of interstitial collagens. CF was further purified for biochemical studies by incubation with HSC. HSC solubilized 20% of CF hydroxyproline resulting in a final fraction highly enriched in AWBM. Lung minces incubated in tritiated lysine produced a CF extract rich in newly formed type IV collagen, showing that lung tissue synthesizes AWBM collagen in vitro.