Physicochemical characterization of lymphocyte-activating factor (LAF).

The LAF produced by the mouse macrophage cell line, P388D1, is a single polypeptide chain of m.w. 12,000 to 16,000 daltons. Native LAF was destroyed by Streptomyces griseus protease, but not by trypsin, chymotrypsin, and papain, although in the presence of 8 M urea, papain completely destroyed LAF activity. LAF did not bind to concanavalin A-Sepharose, suggesting that LAF does not contain significant amounts of mannosyl or glycosyl residues. Since LAF activity was not inactivated by a treatment of reduction and alkylation the active conformation of LAF does not appear to be dependent on disulfide linkages. LAF was not irreversibly denatured by 8 M urea or 0.1 to 0.5% SDS. On SDS-polyacrylamide gels, the m.w. of LAF was 12,000 daltons, as compared to a value of 16,000 daltons, as determined by gel filtration. The isoelectric point of LAF was 5.0 to 5.4 as determined on 7.5% acrylamide gels (pH 3 to 10). On the basis of these results it appears that the P388D1 cell line-derived LAF is a relatively stable molecule that shares several physicochemical properties with normal human and mouse macrophage-derived LAF.