Ectoenzymes of the kidney microvillar membrane. Isolation and characterization of the amphipathic form of renal dipeptidase and hydrolysis of its glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol anchor by an activity in plasma.

Renal dipeptidase (EC 3.4.13.11) has been solubilized from pig kidney microvillar membranes with n-octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside and then purified by affinity chromatography on cilastatin-Sepharose. The enzyme exists as a disulphide-linked dimer of two identical subunits of Mr 45,000 each. The purified dipeptidase partitioned into the detergent-rich phase upon phase separation in Triton X-114 and reconstituted into liposomes consistent with the presence of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol membrane anchor. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the amphipathic, detergent-solubilized, form of renal dipeptidase was identical with that of the hydrophilic, phospholipase-solubilized, form, locating the membrane anchor at the C-terminus of the protein. The glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol anchor of both purified and microvillar membrane renal dipeptidase was a substrate for an activity in pig plasma which displayed properties similar to those of a previously described phospholipase D. The cross-reacting determinant of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol anchor was generated by incubation of purified renal dipeptidase with bacterial phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase c, whereas the anchor-degrading activity in plasma failed to generate this determinant.