Blood-group substances

Glycoprotein antigens with ABH and Lewis blood-group specificities, as well as their immunogenic properties, biosynthesis, and occurrence in malignant cells and tissues, have been reviewed. The chemistry of the MN, P, I, J, and Rh antigens was also discussed. A survey of studies on the immunochemistry of water-soluble A, B, H, Le , and Le antigens and their precursors has also appeared.  

Comparative studies of the blood-group A substances of invertebrates have been reported, and the results of an examination of tissues from pigs, horses, baboons. Rhesus monkeys, and humans are consistent with, but do not unequivocally confirm, the microheterogeneity of glycoproteins exhibiting blood-group activity.  

The biosynthesis of basement membrane has been studied in vitro using rat parietal yolk sac. There appears to be both temporal and cellular compart- 

Uhlenbruck, C. H. Gauwerky, J. Salfner, and L. Renwrantz, Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 

The biochemistry and genetics of some human blood groups have been the subject of a review.  

Affinity chromatography of I-labelled solubilized stroma from human erythrocytes and of I-labelled band 3 (the major intrinsic membrane protein) on an anti-(blood group I) adsorbent column has indicated the association of blood-group I activity with band 3.  

A study of common ABH blood donors, and rare Bombay and Para-bombay individuals, has shown the presence of 2-a-L-fucosyltransferase activity in human sera and erythrocyte membranes.  

Collagen has been reduced with sodium borotritide and the product used as a substrate for collagenase, whose activity can be determined from the levels of tritiated collagen peptides released.  

Elevated levels of L-hydroxylysine in, and an increase in the number of saccharide units attached to, the collagen of glomerular basement membrane are observed in rats during the ageing process.  

A glycoprotein (mol. wt. 1 x 10 ) that exhibits blood-group A activity has been isolated from oyster viscera it contains residues of D-galactose (12.8%), L-fucose (9.9 %), 2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose (4.6 %), 2-amino-2-deoxy-D-galactose (16.6 %), and D-glucose (3.3 %), but no residues of sialic acid.  

Contrary to previous evidence, the H-determinant disaccharide 2-0-a-L-fucopyranosyl-D-galactopyranose is now thought to occur only on the type-1 chain, rather than on both type-1 and -2 chains, of the branched core structure. The case histories of a family with fucosidosis have demonstrated the importance of a-L-fucosidases in the catabolism of Le antigens on the red cells. The high 

Uhlenbruck, G. Steinhausen, and B. A. Baldo, Comp. Biochem. Physiol, 1977, 56B, 329. 

Ogashiwa, and K. Nagasawa, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1976, 451,426. 

Biochemical studies on ABO and Lewis antigens and the role of the secretor gene have been reviewed/ The Haworth Memorial Lecture given by R. U. Lemieux and entitled Human Blood Groups and Carbohydrate Chemistry has been published.  

A book dealing with collagen in the context of the physiology and pathology of connective tissues, and a practical handbook for the preparation and analysis of basement membranes, have been published. 

The pattern of excretion of the collagen metabolites L-hydroxyproline, L-hydroxylysine, and L-hydroxylysine glycosides in urine by patients with Paget s disease of the bone, and carcinoma with bone metastases, is reported to be a 

Gay and E. J. Miller in Collagen in the Physiology and Pathology of Connective Tissue , Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgurt, 1978. 

The synthesis of collagen in vitro and in vivo in rats is inhibited by D-penicillamine, probably due to its ability to chelate Fe , a cofactor for proline hydroxylase (EC 1.14.11.2).  

Mohn and Witebsky (M45) examined 22 specimens of gastric juice 

The carbohydrate end groups in various blood group mucopolysaccharides, as described by Morgan (M50), are as follows acetylgalactosamine, acetylglucosamine, and galactose on blood group substance A  

Morgan and his associates (A2, A8, A8a, G4, M51) analyzed blood group substances A, B, H, and Le and obtained results as follows. 

Elementary analysis of B substance (G4) showed 41% carbon, 6.6% hydrogen, 5.7% nitrogen, and 7% acetyl. The same sugars and amino sugars were again found, including 17.9% fucose, as well as the same 11 amino acids. However, content of hexosamine was lower (20-22% only) as compared to 33-37% in blood group substances A, H, and Le.  

Blood group substance H (A8) designated in the early literature by O, contained 41.4% carbon, 6.9% hydrogen, 5.3% nitrogen, and 8.7% acetyl. Its fucose content was 14% and that of hexosamine 31%. The same 11 amino acids were present. Le substance showed 41.5% carbon. 

Extracts from cohesive cells of four species of cellular slime mould Dictyostelium mucoroides, D. purpureum, D. rosarium, and Polysphondylium violaceum) agglutinated erythrocytes in a manner akin to D. discoideum. The lectin from Polysphondylium pallidum has been purified to homogeneity by adsorption onto formalinized erythrocytes it has a subunit of molecular weight 2.4 X 10 and appears to differ from the lectins isolated from other slime moulds.  

An agglutinin specific for the non-reducing, terminal sequence j8-D-Gal/7-(1 - 4)-]8 -D-GlclVAcp-(l 3)-D-Gal/ has been isolated from the serum of a 

Maisonrouge-McAuliffe and E. A. Kabat, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 1976, 175, 71. 

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Chemistry of Tissues. 3. Blood Group Substances from Human Gastric Contents, H. G. Bray, H. Henry, and M. Stacey, Biochem. J., 40 (1946) 130-134. 

Glycosphingolipids are constituents of the outer leaflet of plasma membranes and are important in cell adhesion and cell recognition. Some are antigens, eg, ABO blood group substances. Certain gangliosides function as receptors for bacterial toxins (eg, for cholera toxin, which subsequently activates adenylyl cyclase). 

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) (neutral GSLs, gangliosides, and complex species, including the ABO blood group substances) constitute about 5-10% of the total lipid. 

The ABO substances have been isolated and their structures determined simphfied versions, showing only their nonreducing ends, are presented in Figure 52—6. It is important to first appreciate the structure of the H substance, since it is the precursor of both the A and B substances and is the blood group substance found in persons of type O. H substance itself is formed by the action of a fiicosyltransferase, which catalyzes the addition of the terminal fiicose in al —> 2 linkage onto the terminal Gal residue of its precursor ... 

Figure 52-6. Diagrammatic representation of the structures of the H, A,and B blood group substances. R represents a long complex oligosaccharide chain, joined either to ceramide where the substances are glycosphingolipids, or to the polypeptide backbone of a protein via a serine or threonine residue where the substances are glycoproteins. Note that the blood group substances are biantenna ry ie, they have two arms, formed at a branch point (not indicated) between the GIcNAc—R, and only one arm of the branch is shown. Thus, the H, A,and B substances each contain two of their respective short oligosaccharide chains shown above. The AB substance contains one type A chain and one type B chain.

The ABO blood group substances in the red cell membrane are complex glycosphingohpids the immunodominant sugar of A substance is A -acetyl-galactosamine, whereas that of the B substance is galactose. 

Alterations in other gastric secretions, such as pepsinogens and blood group substances also take place in chronic atrophic gastritis. The secretion of pepsinogen I has been used as an indicator of intestinal metaplasia and gastric cancer (21, 22). 

Kabat, E. A. Blood-Group Substances. Their Chemistry and Immuno-... 

XIV. The Separation and Quantitative Estimation of Glucosamine and Galactosamine in Blood Group Substances. J. Amer. chem. Soc. 76, 4887 (1954). 

The Hexosamine Ratios in Blood Group Substances. Biochem. J. 

Nakajima, M., Ito, N., Nishi, K., Okamura, Y., and Hirota, T. (1988) Cytochemical localization of blood group substances in human salivary glands using lectin-gold complexes. /. Histochem. Cytochem. 36, 337-348. 

Amino-2-deoxy-D-galactose (D-galactosamine chondrosamine) H HO HO H HOHjC—C—C—C—C—CHO HO H H NH, frog-spawn mucin blood-group substances cartilage... 

Figure 9.12 Deoxy derivatives. These contain one less oxygen atom than the monosaccharide from which they are derived. 2-Deoxyribose is a most important deoxy pentose and is a major constituent of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Deoxy hexoses are widely distributed among plants, animals and microorganisms especially as components of complex polysaccharides. Examples are rhamnose (6-deoxymannose), a component of bacterial cell walls, and fucose (6-deoxygalactose), which is often found in glycoproteins and is an important constituent of human blood group substances.

Glycoproteins are proteins that have been modified by the addition of one or more carbohydrate groups. Glycoproteins include blood group substances, among many others. 

III. Blood Group Substances from Other Sources. 42... 

VII. Artificial Antigens from Blood Group Substances. 53... 

VIII. Destruction of Blood Group Substances by Specific Enzymes. 55... 

Fortunately from the chemists point of view, there are polysaccharides with blood group activity more readily accessible than those from erythrocytes, and it is with the former that most chemical investigations have been concerned, although the relationship between these and the blood group substances proper from erythrocytes is not yet clear. Indeed the relationship may be no more than a close similarity in chemical structure of some parts of the molecular complex. 

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