Reduced susceptibility of nonenzymatically glucosylated glomerular basement membrane to proteases: is thickening of diabetic glomerular basement membranes due to reduced proteolytic degradation?

Glomerular basement membrane (GBM) preparations were enzymatically glucosylated and applied to proteolytic degradation by several enzymes. The split products were then characterized and quantitatively estimated by high pressure liquid chromatography. For this purpose, GBMs were isolated by a sieving and sonication method, incubated with glucose and digested with the proteases trypsin, chymotrypsin, papain, pepsin and a lysosomal preparation. Comparison of the concentrations of split products obtained by proteolytic degradation of normal and nonenzymatically glucosylated membranes showed a remarkable reduced susceptibility of the nonenzymatically glucosylated membranes, possibly due to steric hindrance or altered electrical charge of the glucosylated membrane proteins. This could be interpreted as an additional factor for accumulation of basement membrane material in the diabetic state, that not only increased basement membrane synthesis may occur but also reduced catabolism could possibly contribute to the diabetic changes.