The peripheral myelin glycoprotein P0 expresses the L2/HNK-1 and L3 carbohydrate structures shared by neural adhesion molecules.

On the basis of recent evidence that the carbohydrate structures L2/HNK-1 and L3 are shared by several neural cell adhesion molecules, we have suggested that other glycoproteins carrying these carbohydrate structures are adhesion molecules. We have isolated P0, the major glycoprotein of peripheral myelin, from human sciatic nerve by immunoaffinity chromatography using a monoclonal L2 antibody column and tested it, along with bovine P0, in Western blots for the presence of the two carbohydrate structures. Here we show that P0 expresses the L2/HNK-1 and L3 carbohydrates.