Comparison of rabbit androgen binding protein with testosterone estradiol binding globulin--I. Physical and chemical properties.

Rabbit epididymal androgen binding protein (rbABP) and serum testosterone estradiol binding globulin (rbTeBG) were purified and their physicochemical properties compared. Both proteins bound dihydrotestosterone (DHT) with high affinity. Both contained two components, Heavy (H) and Light (L), and their molecular weights and pI values were comparable. rbABP and rbTeBG were different with regard to their ConA-Sepharose binding property. rbABP was not bound by ConA-Sepharose while rbTeBG was found and retained by this lectin; thus, rbABP and rbTeBG differed in their carbohydrate structure. Peptide mapping on SDS-PAGE indicated that the H components of rbABP and rbTeBG were distinct even though they showed a high degree of homology. By contrast, the L components of these two proteins appeared to be identical. The structure of the steroid binding sites of these two proteins was analyzed by peptide mapping of [1,2(3)H]17 beta hydroxy-androsta-4,6-dien-3-one photoaffinity labeled protein. The size distribution of radioactive peptide fragments generated appeared to be identical for these two proteins. However, the distribution of labeled peptides was slightly different when examined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The observations suggest that the differences between rbABP and rbTeBG might reside not only in carbohydrate moieties but also in their amino acid sequences.