Immunochemical studies on blood groups: Purification,chemical and immunochemical properties of blood group-active glycoproteins from horse gastric mucosae

Digestion of the gastric mucosae of 10 horses with pepsin or Pronase was followed by phenol/ethanol fractionation. Chemical and immunochemical examination of the fractions showed the mucosae to possess various combinations of A, B and H activities. Most were B-active, three had weak A activity, one had strong H activity and the remainder were weakly H-active; one mucosa possessed neither A, B nor H activity. Digestion with pepsin or Pronase of different portions of the same mucosa yielded products equivalent in serological and most chemical properties. Materials digested by Pronase tended to have less peptide nitrogen than those treated with pepsin. Fractions with the strongest serological activities contained significantly higher amounts of carbohydrate and lesser amounts of peptide nitrogen than those with weak A, B or H activity or with no activity. All mucosae, independent of their A, B or H activity, reacted with concanavalin A. The fractions precipitable by 10% ethanol from 90% phenol reacted most strongly.     

Immunochemical studies on blood groups. 53. A study of various conditions of alkaline borohydride degradation on human and hog blood group substances and on known oligosaccharides

Blood group A, B, H, Le^a, Le^b, and I substances, their products of periodate oxidation and Smith degradation, and disaccharides containing 3-O-substituted reducing N-acetylhexosamines were treated with base-borohydride under three defined sets of conditions. Procedures for the assay and quantitation of the possible reduced base-degradation products, including hexenetetrol(s), 3-deoxygalactitol, galactitol, reduced chromogens, N-acetylglucosaminitol, and N-acetylgalactosaminitol are described. Extensive degradation occurred by two methods. 1 m NaBH₄ in 0.05 n NaOH at 50 ° cleaves the glycosidic linkage of the oligosaccharide chains from serine and threonine with reduction of the terminal-reducing N-acetylgalactosamine with minimal base degradation. The method is useful for isolation of complete reduced oligosaccharides from blood group substances; the structural implications of the free and oligosaccharide-bound N-acetylgalactosaminitol released are discussed.     

Immunochemical studies on blood groups. Immunochemical properties of B-active and non-B-active blood group substances from horse gastric mucosae and the relative size distributions of oligosaccharides liberated by base-borohydride.

Horse B-active and non-B-active glycoproteins from gastric mucosae are indistinguishable in their precipitating abilities with concanavalin A, anti-BP1, type XIV horse antipneumococcal serum, the lectin from Lotus tetragonolobus and a group 1 anti-I serum, Ma; no Le^a or Le^b activity was found. Each was subjected to catalyzed release of its oligosaccharide chains by 0.05 n NaOH in 1 m NaBH₄. Destruction of serine, threonine and 2-acetamido-2-deoxygalactopyranose (dGalNAc) was associated with production of alanine, α-aminobutyric acid and N-acetyl-d-galactosaminitol, as expected for a carbohydrate to peptide linkage via dGalNAc to serine or threonine. No evidence of basecatalyzed peeling was seen. Bio-Gel P-2 elution patterns of the salt-free oligosaccharides from the two preparations were compared. Unlike results obtained with human ovarian cyst substances, very little material was excluded. The largest-size chains are in the range of deca- or dodecasaccharides, and a reduced octasaccharide was isolated. The four most abundant amino acids in both B-active and non-B-active materials are threonine, serine, proline and glutamic acid, which together account for 60% of the weight of amino acids.     

Immunochemical studies on blood groups: The internal structure and immunological properties of water-soluble human blood group A substance studied by Smith degradation,liberation, and fractionation of oligosaccharides and reaction with lectins

Carbohydrate structures in the interior of a blood group A active substance (MSS) were exposed by one and by two Smith degradations. Reactivities of the original glycoprotein and its Smith degraded products with 13 different lectins and with anti-I Ma were studied by quantitative precipitin assay. MSS and its first Smith degraded product completely precipitated Ricinus communis hemagglutinin with five times less of the first Smith degraded glycoprotein being required for 50% precipitation. The second Smith degraded material precipitated only 90% of the lectin. MSS did not precipitate peanut lectin, whereas its first and second Smith degraded products completely precipitated the lectin. The first Smith degraded glycoprotein also reacted well with Wistaria floribunda, Maclura pomifera, Bauhinia purpurea alba, and Geodia lectins indicating that its carbohydrate moiety could contain dGalNAc, dGalβ1 → 3dGalNAc, dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAc, dGalβ1 → 3dGlcNAcβ1 → 3dGal and/or dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAcβ1 → 6dGal and/or dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAcβ1 → 6dGalNAc determinants at nonreducing ends. The second Smith degraded material precipitated well with Ricinus communis hemagglutinin, Arachis hypogaea, Geodia cydonium, Maclura pomifera, and Helix pomatia lectins showing that dGalNAc, dGalβ1 → 3dGalNAc, dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAc residues at terminal nonreducing ends could be involved. Monoclonal anti-I Ma (group 1) serum reacted strongly with the first Smith degraded product indicating large numbers of anti-I Ma determinants, dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAcβ1 → d 6dGal and/or dGalβ1 → 4dGlcNAcβ1 → 6dGalNAc at nonreducing ends. The comparable activities of the native and Smith degraded products with wheat germ lectin indicate capacity to react with DGlcNAc residues at nonreducing ends and/or at positions in the interior of the chain. The totality of lectin reactivities indicates heterogeneity of the carbohydrate side chains. Oligosaccharides with ³H at their reducing ends released from the protein core of the first and second Smith degraded products were obtained by treatment with 0.05 m NaOH and 1 M NaB³H₄ at 50 °C for 16 h (Carlson degradation). The liberated reduced oligosaccharides were fractionated by dialysis, followed by retardion, Bio-Gel P-2, P-4, and P-6 columns. They were further purified on charcoal-celite columns, and by preparative paper chromatography and high-pressure liquid chromatography. Their distribution by size was estimated by the yields on dialysis, Bio-Gel P-2, and Bio-Gel P-6 chromatography, and from the radioactivity of the reduced sugars. Of the oligosaccharide fractions from the first Smith degraded product, about 77% of the carbohydrate side chain residues contained from 1 to 6 sugars, 13% from 7 to perhaps 12 sugars, and 10% was nondialyzable (polysaccharides and glycopeptide fragments). Of the second Smith degraded product, approximately 82% of carbohydrate residues had from 1 to 6 sugars, 14% from 7 to perhaps 20 sugars and 4% was nondialyzable. The biological activity profile of the two Smith degraded products together with the size distributions of the oligosaccharides indicated that their carbohydrate side chains, comprised a heterogeneous population ranging in size from 1 to about 12 sugars. When most of these chains that are shorter than hexasaccharides are fully characterized it may be possible to reconstruct the overall structure of the carbohydrate moiety of the blood group substances and account for their biological activities.