The estrogen-responsive 110K and 74K rat uterine secretory proteins are structurally related to complement component C3.

Estrogens stimulate the synthesis of specific secretory proteins in the rat uterus. Here we show that two of these, polypeptides of relative molecular weight 110,000 (110K) and 74,000 (74K), are structurally related to C3, the third component of complement, a glycoprotein that plays a central role in regulating complement-mediated inflammatory and immune responses. The similarities were based on the observations that (1) NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of the 74K polypeptide showed sequence homology with the beta chain of mouse C3, (2) comparison of the electrophoretic mobilities of the 110K and 74K polypeptides in the presence and absence of reducing agents revealed that they were disulfide-linked subunits of a protein of Mr approximately 180,000, (3) the native protein was immunoreactive with antibodies specific for rat C3, and (4) both polypeptides were immunoprecipitated with antibodies to rat C3.