The characterization of a protein–polysaccharide isolated from Kurloff cells of the guinea pig

Abstract

Kurloff cells of guinea pigs increase in number and accumulate in the spleen on oestrogen treatment. Because they contain metachromatic inclusions and are considered to be lymphocytes they were examined as a possible model for mucopolysaccharidoses like Hurler's syndrome, where some lymphocytes are also metachromatic. Oestrogen treatment produced a large increase in a glycosaminoglycan resembling chondroitin 4-sulphate in chemical analysis, chromatographic behaviour and i.r. spectrum but with an additional strong band at 805cm−1. Material isolated without proteolysis behaved on gel chromatography as a multiple-chain protein–polysaccharide whose molecular size was decreased by proteolysis. It contained xylose and galactose in molar proportions with serine, compatible with the presence of the same linkage region as in cartilage chondroitin 4-sulphate proteins and which likewise underwent alkaline β-elimination. Kurloff glycosaminoglycan chains were significantly longer than chondroitin sulphate chains of cartilage protein–polysaccharides as assessed by gel chromatography and the molar ratios of galactosamine to xylose or to serine. Kurloff cells thus contain intact rather than partially degraded protein–polysaccharide and hence are not analogous to Hurler cells, and their electron micrographs were also different. The purified Kurloff protein–polysaccharide and glycosaminoglycan isolated here has been shown by Marshall, Swettenham, Vernon-Roberts & Revell (1970) to be toxic specifically to macrophages at extremely low concentrations in vitro, unlike chondroitin sulphate of protein–polysaccharides from cartilage. The toxic constituent may account for the i.r.-absorption band at 805cm−1. Although active incorporation of [35S]sulphate occurs at early stages of Kurloff-cell induction (Marshall et al. 1970), the fully developed Kurloff cell studied here showed very low incorporation in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that the inclusions are specialized for the storage of the toxic material.