Isolation and characterization of guinea-pig serum amyloid P component

A pentraxin was isolated from acute-phase guinea-pig serum by calcium-dependent affinity chromatography on agarose. It was immunochemically identical to guinea-pig amyloid P component and therefore has been called guinea-pig serum amyloid P component (SAP). Guinea-pig SAP has an apparent MW of between 265,000 and 300,000 by different techniques, and is composed of 10 noncovalently associated subunits arranged in two pentameric annular discs interacting face-to-face. It is apparently composed of two types of subunit, which run as a closely spaced doublet on reduced sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). At least one type of subunit is glycosylated. The serum concentration was 16 +/- 4 mg/l in outbred animals, rising to 25 +/- 4 mg/l in an acute-phase response. Binding to agarose correlated with the agarose pyruvate content and was completely abolished by diazomethane treatment of the agarose, which methylates the pyruvate carboxylic moiety. Binding was also inhibited in the presence of free methyl 4,6-o-(carboxyethylidine)-beta-D-galactopyranoside. No protein resembling C-reactive protein (CRP) was obtained by calcium-dependent affinity chromatography of acute-phase guinea-pig serum on phosphorylcholine (PC)-Sepharose, and it not clear whether a counterpart of CRP exists in this species.