Extracellular lectin and its glycosaminoglycan inhibitor in chick muscle cultures.

Embryonic chick muscle contains two developmentally regulated lectins, which may be involved in cell interactions. These endogenous lectins are assayed as agglutinins of appropriate test erythrocytes. One of these, called lectin-2, interacts with specific glycosaminoglycans, especially heparin and dermatan sulfate. Lectin-2 is present at constant levels in both chick fibroblast and chick muscle cells throughout 14 days of culture but is released into the medium of cultured embryonic muscle after 7-8 days of culture, soon after myoblast fusion. Lectin-2 interacts strongly with a component of substrate-attached material in embryonic muscle cultures which is extractable from the cutlure dishes with alkali after the cells have been removed with ethylediaminetetraacetic acid. The active component in the substrate-attached material appears to be a glycosaminoglycan that is a more potent inhibitor of lectin-2 agglutination activity than any of the known glycosaminoglycans that we have tested. The active material is degraded by chondroitinase ABC but not by chondrotinase AC, hyaluronidase, or proteolytic enzymes and thus appears to be similar to dermatan sulfate. The results of these studies raise the possibility that lectin-2 functions by interacting with glycosaminoglycans, either associated with the cell surface or with the extracellular matrix.