Isolation and characterization of alpha 1-antitrypsin in PAS-positive hepatic granules from rats with experimental alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Chronic galactosamine (GalNH2) administration in rats decreases plasma alpha 1-antitrypsin (AAT) levels to 10-50% of control levels and induces the formation of diastase-resistant, PAS-positive granules, which contain AAT in hepatocytes. This report describes the isolation and purification of hepatic granule AAT by three different methods: solubilization with guanidine hydrochloride followed by gel filtration on Bio-gel A5M, extraction with methylamine and 2-chloroethanol, and solubilization with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) followed by preparative SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. All three methods yield a single protein which precipitates with anti-rat plasma AAT antibody, and which has an apparent molecular weight of 45,000 daltons, in contrast to the molecular weight of plasma AAT, 50,000 daltons. Unlike plasma AAT, granule AAT contains no sialic acid, galactose, or fucose. Moreover, granule AAT contains a reduced amount of N-acetylglucosamine and an increased amount of mannose, compared with plasma AAT. The carbohydrate content of granule AAT varies with the isolation procedure used. Granule AAT is susceptible to cleavage by endoglucosaminidase H, which indicates the presence of high-mannose type oligosaccharides. Comparison of the molecular weight, carbohydrate composition, isoelectric point, and endoglucosaminidase H sensitivity of granule AAT isolated from rats with GalNH2-induced AAT deficiency with granule AAT from PiZ humans extends the list of similarities between experimental GalNH2-induced AAT deficiency in rats by and genetically determined AAT deficiency in humans.