ARGININE-RICH CATIONIC PROTEINS OF HUMAN EOSINOPHIL GRANULES - COMPARISON OF CONSTITUENTS OF EOSINOPHILIC AND NEUTROPHILIC LEUKOCYTES

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  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 36  (5) , 493-500
Abstract
Several arginine-rich cationic proteins previously isolated from granules of leukemic myeloid cells were found to reside primarily in human eosinophil leukocytes. The major component has a MW of 21,000 and it contains approximately 2.6 mol of Zn/mol of protein. Velocity centrifugation of cytoplasm from leukocytes of patients with marked eosinophilia showed that this group of proteins is packaged in the crystalloid-containing large eosinophil granules. Approximately 30% of the protein content of eosinophil granules belonged to this group of cationic proteins. Bactericidal or esterolytic activities of the cationic proteins were not detected, nor did they inhibit guinea pig anaphylatoxin or histamine-induced contraction. The basic protein previously demonstrated in guinea pig eosinophils may be analogous to the group of basic proteins of human eosinophils but great differences are found for MW and amino acid composition.