Structural variability of BM-40/SPARC/osteonectin glycosylation: implications for collagen affinity

We performed a detailed investigation of N-glycan structures on BM-40 purified from different sources including human bone, human platelets, mouse Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm (EHS) tumor, and human BM-40 recombinantly expressed in 293 and osteosarcoma cells. These preparations were digested with endoglycosidases and N-glycans were further characterized by sequential exoglycosidase digestion and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses. Bone BM-40 carries high-mannose structures as well as biantennary complex type N-glycans, whereas the protein from platelets and 293 cells has exclusively bi- and triantennary complex type structures. BM-40 derived from the EHS tumor carries biantennary complex type and additional hybrid structures. Using the osteosarcoma-derived MHH-ES1 cell line we successfully expressed a recombinant BM-40 that bears at least in part the bone-specific high-mannose N-glycosylation in addition to complex type and hybrid structures. Using chromatography on Concanavalin-A Sepharose, we further purified a fraction enriched in high-mannose structures. This array of differentially glycosylated BM-40 proteins was assayed by surface plasmon resonance measurements to investigate the binding to collagen I. BM-40 carrying high-mannose structures binds collagen I with higher affinity, suggesting that differentially glycosylated forms may have different functional roles in vivo.