AJP - Cell Physiology, Vol 256, Issue 4 C779-C785, Copyright © 1989 by American Physiological Society
Synthesis of alpha 2-macroglobulin by bovine adrenal cortical cell cultures
N. Kirshner, J. J. Corcoran and H. P. Erickson
Department of Pharmacology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 22710.
Primary cultures of bovine adrenal medullary cells synthesize and secrete a
high-molecular-weight protein into the culture medium. The protein was
purified from the serum-free medium of cultured cells and was identified as
alpha 2-macroglobulin by gel electrophoresis, sedimentation velocity,
electron microscopy, immunoprecipitation, immunodiffusion, and
autoradiography. Antisera directed against the protein were prepared and
used to determine the cell types that synthesize the protein.
Immunohistofluorescence studies show that adrenal cortical cells present in
the adrenal medullary cell cultures reacted with the antisera to the
protein purified from the medium, but adrenal medullary chromaffin cells
did not. Cell cultures prepared from bovine adrenal cortex also synthesize
and secrete alpha 2-macroglobulin and react with the antisera.
