COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF ASPARAGINE-LINKED GLYCANS OF PLASMA T-KININOGEN IN NORMAL RATS AND DURING ACUTE-INFLAMMATION

Rat T-kininogen has been separated into two molecular variants by affinity chromatography on concanavalin A (ConA): a ConA-reactive (ConA+) and a ConA-non-reactive (ConA ) fraction, from which carbohydrate chains were quantitatively released by hydrazinolysis. On the basis of high-resolution 400 MHz H-1-n.m.r. spectroscopy of the re-N-acetylated hydrazinolysates, the carbohydrate structures of the two ConA molecular variants of rat T-kininogen were established. The ConA-non-reactive species contains a single type of carbohydrate chain with the following structure: [GRAPHICS] The ConA-reactive fraction contains the same structure and the following additional one: [GRAPHICS] The relative abundance of the two molecular forms is profoundly affected during inflammation (ratio ConA-/ConA-: 44% in normal and 95% in inflamed T-kininogen), but no structural modification of the carbohydrate chains was observed.