Structures of the asparagine-linked sugar chains of subcomponent C1q of the first component of bovine complement

Bovine C1q, a subcomponent of the first component of complement, contains six asparagine-linked sugar chains in 1 molecule. The sugar chains are exclusively distributed in the noncollagenous regions. The sugar chains were liberated as radioactive oligosaccharides from the polypeptide portion by hydrazinolysis followed by N-acetylation and NaB[3H]4 reduction, and their structures were studied by sequential exoglycosidase digestion in combination with methylation analysis. Bovine C1q was shown to contain equal amounts of neutral and acidic oligosaccharides with the following structures: (formula, see text) where NeuG1 is N-glycolylneuraminic acid.