Abstract

We have used suramin and brefeldin A to investigate the nature of a heparan sulphate proteoglycan that appears to recycle from the cell surface to intracellular compartments which synthesize new heparan sulphate chains. Suramin, which would block internalization and deglycanation of a putative recycling cell surface proteoglycan, markedly increases the yield of a membrane-bound proteoglycan with a core protein of 60–70 kDa and unusually long heparan sulphate side chains. When transport of newly made core proteins to their Golgi sites for glycosaminoglycan assembly is blocked, by using brefeldin A, [3H]glucosamine and [35S]sulphate incorporation into cell surface-bound heparan sulphate proteoglycan can still take place. After chemical biotinylation of cell surface proteins in brefeldin A-treated cells, followed by metabolic [35S]sulphation in the presence of the same drug, biotin-tagged [35S]proteoglycan can be demonstrated, indicating the presence of recycling proteoglycan species. By prelabelling cells with [3H]leucine or [3H]inositol in the presence of suramin, followed by chase labelling with [35S]sulphate in the presence of brefeldin A, a 3H- and 35S-labelled, hydrophobic heparan sulphate proteoglycan with a core protein of 60–65 kDa is obtained. The proteoglycan loses its hydrophobicity when glucosamineinositol bonds are cleaved, indicating that it is membrane bound via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor. However, treatment with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C has no effect, suggesting that the inositol moiety may be acylated. We propose that a portion of the lipid-anchored proteoglycan glypican is internalized, recycled via the Golgi, where heparan sulphate chains are added, and finally re-deposited at the cell surface.

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