Purification and initial characterization of intrinsic membrane-bound alkaline phosphatase from chicken epiphyseal cartilage.

Alkaline phosphatase has been purified from microsomes of chicken epiphyseal cartilage by first selectively extracting certain adventitious proteins with 0.25 M trichloroacetate. The membrane-bound enzyme was then solubilized by 1% cholate in buffered 33% saturated ammonium sulfate and purified by column chromatography on Bio-Gel A-5m, extraction with 1-butanol, and ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Bio-Gel A. The purified alkaline phosphatase from the cartilage membrane had a subunit molecular weight of 53,000 and a holoenzyme weight of 207,000-220,000, indicating a tetramer. The pH optima for p-nitrophenylphosphate, ATP, and pyrophosphate hydrolysis were 10.3, 9.0, and 8.5, respectively. Values of Vmax (in micromoles/min/mg) were 220, 3.1, and 0.8, respectively. Substrate inhibition was pronounced at values of pH below 8.5. Inhibition of p-nitrophenylphosphate hydrolysis at pH 10.3 showed that phosphate and arsenate were competitive inhibitors (KI = 1.88 and 0.15 mM, respectively) and levamisole was an uncompetitive inhibitor (KI = 0.32 mM), while L-phenylalanine and ZnCl2 were mixed inhibitors (KI = 15.8 and 0.02 mM, respectively). Inhibition by preincubation in 1 mM EDTA was reversible by readdition of 0.25 mM MgCl2 nd 20 microM ZnCl2. The data indicate that this membrane-bound alkaline phosphatase from chicken epiphyseal cartilage is a Zn2+ and possibly Mg2+-containing enzyme. While the subunit molecular weight and kinetic properties of the enzyme are quite typical of vertebrate alkaline phosphatases, the tightness of binding to the membrane lipids, the extreme sensitivity to substrate inhibition, and the tetrameric conformation of the holoenzyme are unusual.