Isolation of platelet glycocalicin by affinity chromatography on thrombin-sepharose

Platelet glycocalicin has been purified to homogeneity by a two step procedure involving affinity chromatography on WGA-Sepharose and then on thrombin-Sepharose using selective elution with heparin. The procedure is more rapid (3-4 days), more reproducible and gives about twice the yield (10 mg/40 units platelets) of the previous method (Okumura et al. J. Biol. Chem. 251, 5950-5955, 1976). The two preparations showed identical inhibition of aggregation of gel filtered platelets induced by thrombin and by ristocetin. Glycocalicin was cleaved in a controlled fashion by trypsin-Sepharose over 3hr to yield the macroglycopeptide and peptide "tail" fragments and there was no apparent further degradation with 18 hrs digestion.