A membrane-bound heparan sulfate proteoglycan that is transiently expressed on growing axons in the rat brain

Monoclonal antibodies were raised to membrane-bound proteoglycans derived from rat brain and three monoclonal antibodies that recognized a 200-kDa heparan sulfate proteoglycan (designated H5-PG) with a core glycoprotein of 140 kDa were obtained. The expression of H5-PG was spatially and temporally regulated in the central nervous system. In the cerebellar cortex, H5-PG was associated mainly with the actively growing parallel fibers of granule cells. The expression was abruptly down-regulated in parallel with the formation of synapses on dendrites of Purkinje cells. In the cerebral cortex, the proteoglycan was widely distributed throughout the cortex. The temporal pattern of expression was similar to that in the cerebellar cortex; the peak level of expression was observed during the period from postnatal days 0 to 20 when neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis occur most extensively in the rat cerebral cortex. H5-PG in the central nervous system disappeared prior to adulthood except in the olfactory bulb. High-level expression was recognized on the olfactory nerves and glomeruli, where the renewal of both axons and synapses is occurring constantly. The data suggest that H5-PG is a glycoconjugate on axonal surface that is involved in axonal outgrowth and/or synaptogenesis.