Studies on factor VIII-related protein. II. Estimation of molecular size differences between factor VIII oligomers

Human factor VIII-related protein was isolated from cryoprecipitate by agarose (Sepharose CL-2B) gel filtration. Electrophoresis on SDS-2% polyacrylamide-0.5% agarose gels revealed size heterogeneity of factor VIII-related protein which was similar to that shown by SDS-1% agarose gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy. The apparent molecular weights were compared with those of crosslinked IgM oligomers and corresponded to values of up to 20 . 10(6) for factor VIII eluting close to the void volume of our gel filtration column. Measurement of mobility intervals on electrophoretic gels suggested a constant size difference between adjacent bands. Smaller aggregates were found in later eluates from Sepharose columns as well as following partial reduction of factor VIII with cysteine. In order to compare the size difference between small and large aggregates of factor VIII-related protein we calibrated the SDS-2% polyacrylamide-0.5% agarose gels with factor VIII which had been crosslinked with dimethyl suberimidate and subsequently disulfied-reduced with 2-metcaptoethanol. By combination of calibration ranges, constant intervals were measured for large and smaller factor VIII aggregates. The interval between any neighboring protein bands, which were immunologically identified as factor VIII-related protein, was equal to the dimer of the basic factor VIII subunit chain. We conclude that factor VIII aggregates correspond to multimers of a dimeric molecule, i.e. pairs of the basic subunit chain.