Glycosylation patterns of human alpha2-macroglobulin: Analysis of lectin binding by electron microscopy

Human alpha2-macroglobulin (α2M) is a 720 kDa glycoprotein that presents two ultrastructural conformations: slow (S-α2M) and fast (F-α2M). α2M acts mainly as a proteinase scavenger, but an immunomodulatory role was also proposed. This work studies the effect of desialylation and deglycosylation on the structure patterns of α2M by ultrastructural analysis of lectin-induced aggregates, which represents a new approach that had never been previously...