Amebocyte

Abstract: A B S TRA CT Lysates prepared from the amebocytes of Limulus polyphemus, the horseshoe crab, are gelled by endotoxin. Studies were carried out to characterize the components of amebocyte lysate and to examine the kinetics of their reaction with endotoxin. Analysis of amebocyte lysate using sucrose density gradients showed two peaks at 46% and 86% gradient volumes. G50 and G75 Sephadex column chromatography resulted in three protein peaks. One fraction contained a clottable protein, which had a molecular weight of approximately 27,000, and was heat stable. Another fraction contained a high molecular weight, heat labile material, which was activated by endotoxin and reacted with the clottable protein to form a gel. The rate of the reaction between endotoxin and amebocyte lysate was dependent upon the concentration of endotoxin and the concentration of the fraction containing the high molecular weight material. The activity of this fraction was inhibited by diisopropyl fluorophosphate, parachloromercuribenzoate, and para-chloromercuriphenyl sulfonate, suggesting that enzymatic activity depended upon serine hydroxyl and sulfhydryl groups. The reaction between endotoxin and the fractions of lysate was temperature and pH dependent. The data suggest that endotoxin activates an enzyme which then gels the clottable protein contained in amebocyte lysate.

Abstract: The endotoxin-specific chromogenic test revealed that plasma endotoxin-inactivating activity was markedly diminished by endotoxemia, but not by fungemia or by dialysis with cellulose membranes, suggesting that fungal polysaccharides and other nonendotoxic, Limulus-reactive materials do not consume endotoxin-inactivating factors in the blood. There was a close negative correlation between plasma endotoxin concentration and endotoxin-inactivating activity. The specificity of the test was improved by fractionating amebocyte lysate and using only the factors that constitute the endotoxin-sensitive coagulation pathway of the horseshoe crab. This test was able to differentiate endotoxemia from fungemia and from contamination with other nonendotoxic, Limulus-reactive materials.

Abstract: Granules were isolated from the cytoplasm of the amebocytes of Limulus polyphemus, the horseshoe crab, by disruption of cells obtained from blood which had been drawn into 2 mM propranolol. The granules subsequently were purified by centrifugation through a sucrose gradient that contained heparin. Extracts of the granules were prepared by freezing and thawing the granule preparations in distilled water. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy of the granules revealed round or ovoid particles. However, only one type of granule appeared to be present. The ultraviolet spectrum of the extract of amebocyte granules demonstrated a peak at 277 nm at pH 7.4, and a shift into two peaks of 281 nm and 290 nm at alkaline pH. Analytical ultracentrifugation revealed a pattern similar to that observed with lysates prepared from intact amebocytes. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in the presence of urea at pH 4.5, demonstrated patterns similar to those observed with amebocyte lysate. Extracts of the granules were gelled by bacterial endotoxin. The blood of the horseshoe crab contains only one type of cell, the amebocyte. Previous studies have shown that the blood coagulation mechanism of Limulus is contained entirely within amebocytes. The current studies suggest that the granules, which pack the cytoplasm of these cells, contain all of the factors required for the coagulation of blood, including the clottable protein. The intracellularly localized coagulation system is released from amebocytes when their granules rupture during cell aggregation.