Ristocetin sulfate

Neither normal nor hemophilic factor VIII protein enters a 5% sosium dodecyl sulfate gel; on reduction, however, a single 195 000-molecular-weight peptide is observed. Hemophilic and normal factor VIII contain carbohydrate and appear identical in subunit molecular weight, electrical charge, and major antigenic determinants. Thrombin activation and inactivation of factor VIII does not detectably change the subunit molecular weight. Trypsin causes similar activity changes and obviously cleaves the factor VIII subunit. Human plasmin destroys factor VIII procoagulant activity and degrades the factor VIII subunit to 103 000-, 88 000-, and 17 000-molecular-weight peptides. Both normal and hemophilic factor VIII as well as thrombin-inactivated factor VIII support ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation. Purified factor VIII chromatographed on 4% agarose in 1.0 M sodium chloride shows no dissociation of the procoagulant activity from the void volume protein. Gel chromatography on 4% agarose in 0.25 M calcium chloride results in a procoagulant activity peak removed from the void volume protein; both peaks contain protein which does not enter a 5% SDS gel, but on reduction a 195 000-molecular-weight subunit band is observed for each. Both the void volume protein peak and the procoagulant activity peak from the 0.25 M calcium chloride-agarose gel column support ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation. After removal of calcium, a small amount of procoagulant activity is present only in the void volume peak. These data suggest that both the procoagulant and von Willebrand activities are on the same molecule. Thus our previous conclusion remains the same: human factor VIII is a large glycoprotein composed of identical 195 000-molecular-weight subunits jointed by disulfide bonds and is responsible for both antihemophilic and von Willebrand activities in human plasma.

We have investigated whether megakaryocytes can be aggregated by ristocetin and bovine plasma and whether such aggregation can be used as a step in the purification of megakaryocytes from marrow cell suspensions. Guinea pig marrow cell suspensions were first enriched for megakaryocytes by density equilibrium centrifugation in continuous Percoll density gradients. The megakaryocyte-enriched marrow was stirred in a platelet aggregometer to which ristocetin or bovine plasma was added. Megakaryocytes were aggregated by both ristocetin and bovine plasma with the proportion aggregated being related to the concentration of ristocetin or bovine plasma. Maximal aggregation (greater than 90% of megakaryocytes) was achieved with 2.0 mg/mL ristocetin or 5% bovine plasma and required five minutes. All maturation stages of morphologically recognizable megakaryocytes were aggregated. The megakaryocyte aggregates were separated from the marrow suspension by sedimentation at 1 g and the megakaryocytes disaggregated by dilution with media (ristocetin aggregated) or addition of dextran sulfate (bovine plasma aggregated). Megakaryocyte purity and recovery were higher with bovine plasma than with ristocetin. A mean of 92% of the megakaryocytes in the bovine plasma aggregated cell suspensions were recovered with megakaryocytes constituting an average of 76% of the final cell suspensions. The viability as well as the diameters and DNA content distribution of these megakaryocytes were similar to those of the starting population. We conclude that guinea pig megakaryocytes behave like platelets in that they can be aggregated with ristocetin or bovine plasma and that megakaryocyte aggregation induced by ristocetin or bovine plasma provides a means to enrich these cells based on membrane rather than physical characteristics. This approach yields purified megakaryocyte populations that are representative of those in unfractionated marrow.

We have previously shown that ristocetin, an activator of glycoprotein Ib/IX/V, induces release of soluble CD40 (sCD40) ligand via thromboxane (TX) A(2) production from human platelets. In the present study, we investigated the effect of antithrombin-III (AT-III), an anticoagulant, on the ristocetin-induced glycoprotein Ib/IX/V activation in human platelets. AT-III inhibited ristocetin-stimulated platelet aggregation. The ristocetin-induced production of 11-dehydro-TXB(2), a stable metabolite of TXA(2), and the release of sCD40 ligand were suppressed by AT-III. AT-III also reduced the ristocetin-stimulated secretion of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-AB. AT-III failed to affect U46619-, a TXA(2) receptor agonist, induced levels of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation or sCD40 ligand release. AT-III reduced the binding of SZ2, a monoclonal antibody to the sulfated sequence in the α-chain of glycoprotein Ib, to the ristocetin-stimulated platelets. These results strongly suggest that AT-III reduced ristocetin-stimulated release of sCD40 ligand due to inhibiting TXA(2) production in human platelets.