Separation of the microvillous (maternal) from the basal (fetal) plasma membrane of human term placenta: methods and physiological significance of marker enzyme distribution.

Plasma membranes from normal, full-term human placental trophoblast have been isolated by a new procedure. The method depends upon isopycnic zonal centrifugation using linear sucrose/Ficoll density gradients. Enrichment of plasma membrane marker enzymes with respect to trophoblast homogenate is found in two distinct peaks (designated B and D) of the fractionated effluent recovered from the rotor. Fraction B is enriched with membrane-bound alkaline phosphatase and 5'-nucleotidase, but not with (Na+, K+)-ATPase of F(-)-stimulated adenylate cyclase. It is suggested that this material is derived from the maternal-facing microvillous plasma membrane. Fraction D, enriched with (Na+, K+)-ATPase, F(-)-stimulated adenylate cyclase and, to a smaller extent, with 5'-nucleotidase and alkaline phosphatase is, by exclusion, proposed to be derived from the fetal-facing basal plasma membrane. Both plasma membrane fractions are shown to be free of appreciable contamination, using specific markers for endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, nuclei and lysosomes. The separation of the two membrane fractions is shown to depend both upon these membranes forming closed vesicles during homogenization and upon the buoyant densities of such vesicles differing in such a way that microvillous plasma membranes band at a lower density than basal plasma membranes. No separation of the membranes is achieved in gradients in which the vesicles are collapsed.