Isolation of human serum spreading factor.

Serum spreading factor (SF) was isolated from human serum by a four-step procedure employing affinity chromatography on glass beads, concanavalin A-Sepharose, DEAE-agarose, and heparin-agarose. The final product was purified approximately 260-fold from the starting material and was maximally active in assays of cell spreading-promoting activity at 300 ng/ml. The isolated human SF preparation consisted of two proteins of apparent molecular weights approximately 65,000 (SF65) and 75,000 (SF75). Both SF65 and SF75 have been shown previously to exhibit cell spreading-promoting activity and to bind monoclonal antibody to human serum SF.