Differential heparin sensitivity of α-dystroglycan binding to laminins expressed in normal and dy/dy mouse skeletal muscle

The α-dystroglycan binding properties of laminins extracted from fully differentiated skeletal muscle were characterized. We observed that the laminins expressed predominantly in normal adult rat or mouse skeletal muscle bound α-dystroglycan in a Ca²⁺-dependent, ionic strength-sensitive, but heparin-insensitive manner as we had observed previously with purified placenta] merosin (Pall, E. A., Bolton, K. M., and Ervasti, J. M. 1996 J. Biol. Chem. 271, 3817-3821). Rat skeletal muscle laminins partially purified by heparin-agarose affinity chromatography also bound α-dystroglycan without sensitivity to heparin. We also confirm previous studies of dystrophic dy/dy mouse skeletal muscle showing that the α2 chain of merosin is reduced markedly and that the laminin α1 chain is not up-regulated detectably. However, we further observed a quantitative decrease in the expression of laminin β/γ chain immunoreactivity in α2 chain-deficient dy/dy skeletal muscle and reduced α-dystroglycan binding activity in laminin extracts from dy/dy muscle. Most interestingly, the α-dystroglycan binding activity of residual laminins expressed in merosin-deficient dy/dy skeletal muscle was inhibited dramatically (69 ± 19%) by heparin. These results identify a potentially important biochemical difference between the laminins expressed in normal and dy/dy skeletal muscle which may provide a molecular basis for the inability of other laminin variants to compensate fully for the deficiency of merosin in some forms of muscular dystrophy.