PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN OXIDASE ACTIVATING FACTOR OF 63 KILODALTONS FROM BOVINE NEUTROPHILS

A 63-kDa protein, which behaves as an oxidase activating factor in bovine neutrophils, has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. The protein was isolated from the cytosol of resting bovine neutrophils after several steps, including ammonium sulfate precipitation and chromatography on AcA44, DE-52 cellulose, Mono Q, and Superose 12 in the presence of dithiothreitol. The oxidase activating potency of the protein was assayed with a cell-free system consisting of neutrophil membranes, GTP-gamma-S, arachidonic acid, and a complementary cytosolic fraction. The purification factor was 200 and the yield 3%. During the course of gel filtration on calibrated Superose 12, the 63-kDa protein eluted as a dimer. Its isoelectric point was 6.4 +/- 0.1. Antibodies raised in rabbits against the 63-kDa protein reacted with a protein of similar size in human neutrophils and in HL60 promyelocytic cells induced to differentiate into granulocytes. No immune reaction was observed in cytosol from undifferentiated HL60 cells, in extracts from bovine skeletal muscle, liver, and brain, or in cytosol prepared from neutrophils derived from a patient with an autosomal cytochrome b positive form of chronic granulomatous disease lacking the 67-kDa oxidase activating factor. Immunoblotting with the 63-kDa bovine protein antiserum demonstrated that activation of bovine neutrophil oxidase by phorbol myristate acetate induced the translocation of the 63-kDa protein from cytosol to the membrane.