Complexing of Low Mr-Weight Human Urokinase In Rat Serum And Its Degradation Into Fragments Of Very Small Molecular Weight In Vivo But Not In Vitro
Highly purified lew molecular weight urokinase (LMR-UK), moving on SDS-PAGE (reduced and nan-reduced) as a single band of 32 kdalton, was labelled with 125I by the chlora- mine-T method. 106 cpn of this 125I-LMr-UK (94% TCA preci- pitable) were injected into the inferior vena cava of la- par atomized albino rats, which were maintained at 37°C. Blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture 5, 30 and 90 min respectively after the injection. Serun, obtained from these samples, was fractionated on a Sephadex G-100 column, calibrated with proteins of known Mr. Radioactivity was measured in the collected fractions.In the 5 min sample, the radioactivity was distributed in 2 peaks, corresponding to 32 kdalton and to < 70 kdalton respectively. In the 30 min sample, the distribution was characterized by a diminution of the 32 kdalton peak and the appearance of a third peak corresponding to a Mr of < 4 kdalton. In the 90 min sample, the LMr-UK peak had disappeared almost completely. About 40% of the 125I-activity was present in a skewed high Mr peak with a broad maximum in the 85-100 kdalton region; ≥ 60% of the 125I-activity was recovered in late fractions corresponding to < 4 kdalton. In control experiments, pooled rat serum was incubated in vitro with 125I-LMr-UK for 5, 30 and 90 min respectively and samples were fractionated on the same column. The radioactivity distribution shewed only the 32 and > 70 kdalton peaks, but no < 4 kdalton peak.These results suggest that LMr-UK is complexed to a carrier protein, both in vivo and in vitro, but that it is degraded into small fragments in vivo only. Attempts to characterize the nature of these complexes are in progress.