ABSTRACT: Large, chondroitin sulphate-containing proteoglycans are synthesized by three prominent tissue in the embryonic chick limb. One of these proteoglycans is aggrecan, the phenotype-specific proteoglycan of cartilage. Another, PG-M, is produced by prechondrogenic mesenchymal cells. The third, M-CSPG, is made by developing skeletal muscle cells. While the carbohydrate components of PG-M and M-CSPG share some similarities, both of these proteoglycans clearly have different carbohydrate moieties from those of aggrecan. To compare these three proteoglycans at another level, their core protein structures were analysed in three ways: by the presence or absence of monoclonal antibody epitopes, by one-dimensional peptide display of the cyanogen bromide-cleaved core proteins and by electron microscopic imaging of the molecules. Monoclonal antibodies whose epitopes are present in aggrecan core protein were tested with core protein preparations from M-CSPG and PG-M. One of these, 7D1, recognizes both PG-M and M-CSPG, while another, 1C6, shows no reactivity for the non-cartilage proteoglycans. The absence of 1C6 reactivity is of interest, as its epitope is in a region of the aggrecan core protein known to have a functional homologue in the core proteins of PG-M and M-CSPG. The cyanogen bromide-fragmented peptide pattern of M-CSPG is the same as that of PG-M, and both are different from that of aggrecan. The aggrecan pattern has one prominent large band (molecular mass 130 kDa), some less prominent large bands (molecular mass 70-100 kDa) and several smaller bands. In contrast, the PG-M and M-CSPG patterns show no bands with molecular masses > 73 kDa, and the smaller bands (molecular mass < 40 kDa) have a different pattern to that of the smaller bands from aggrecan. The electron microscopic images of aggrecan show a core protein with one end having two globular regions separated by a short linear segment; adjacent to this is a long linear segment, which sometimes contains a third globular region at the end of the core protein opposite the end with the double-globe structure. M-CSPG and PG-M core proteins never show images with the double-globe structure. Instead, one end of the molecule has a single globular domain, and a second globular region is variably present at the opposite end of the core protein. Thus, by all three methods, the core proteins of PG-M and M-CSPG appear to be the same and both differ from the core protein of aggrecan.
