Phosphatidylserine (PS)-dependent erythrocyte adhesion to endothelium and subendothelial matrix components is mediated in part via thrombospondin (TSP). Although TSP exhibits multiple cell-binding domains, the PS-binding site on TSP is unknown. Because a cell-binding domain for anionic heparin is located at the amino-terminus, we hypothesized that PS-positive red blood cells (PS(+ve)-RBCs) bind...

Heparin/heparin sulfate (HS) interacts with a number of proteins thereby playing an essential role in the regulation of many physiological processes. The understanding of heparin/HS-protein interactions at the molecular level is of fundamental importance to biology and will aid in the development of highly specific glycan-based therapeutic agents. The heparin-binding proteins (HBPs) interact wi...

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) binds to cell surface tyrosine kinase receptor proteins and to heparan sulfate proteoglycans. The interaction of bFGF with heparan sulfate on the cell surface has been demonstrated to impact receptor binding and biological activity. bFGF receptor binding affinity is reduced on cells that do not express heparan sulfate. The addition of soluble heparin or hep...

Thrombin (IIa)-cleavage of fibrinogen (FBG) to form polymerized fibrin promotes endothelial cell spreading, proliferation, and von Willebrand factor release, requiring the exposure of the beta 15-42 domain. Studies reported here indicate that IIa-cleavage of fibrinopeptide B enhances exposure of a heparin binding domain at the beta 15-42 neo-N-terminus of fibrin. Crossed immunoelectrophoresis s...

The biological response of cells to fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) depends on heparan sulphate glycosaminoglycans sharing particular structural motifs. Heparin induced FGF dimerization has been suggested to mediate receptor dimerization and activation. Here we demonstrate that heparin-derived oligosaccharides that promote receptor binding and activation specifically induce the dimerization of...

The heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA) is one of the few virulence factors identified for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is a surface-associated adhesin that expresses a number of different activities, including mycobacterial adhesion to nonphagocytic cells and microbial aggregation. Previous evidence indicated that HBHA is likely to form homodimers or homopolymers via a predicted coiled-coil...

Secreted modular calcium-binding proteins 1 and 2 (SMOC-1 and SMOC-1) are extracellular calcium- binding proteins belonging to the BM-40 family of proteins. In this work we have identified a highly basic region in the extracellular calcium-binding (EC) domain of the SMOC-1 similar to other known glycosaminoglycan-binding motifs. Size-exclusion chromatography shows that full length SMOC-1 as wel...

The interaction between antithrombin III (ATIII) and albumin-heparin conjugates covalently coupled onto carboxylated polystyrene beads either in buffer containing albumin or in plasma was studied using 14C-labeled ATIII. Binding isotherms of ATIII were modeled using a summation of two Langmuir equations. These equations describe the binding of ATIII to two different sets of binding sites, one w...