Studies on Glomerular Basement Membrane. 1. Isolation and Chemical Analysis of Normal Glomerular Basement Membrane.

A method has been described for obtaining isolated human glomerular basement membrane. Evidence for the purity of the isolated GBM includes electron microscopic and chemical data. Some of the membrane constituents, in particular hydroxypro-line, aminosugars, sialic acid, neutral sugars, and lipids have been identified. Hexuronic acid is absent as is DNA. Sixty percent of the nitrogen of the membrane can be accounted for by collagen; the remainder may be contributed by the protein moiety of a glycoprotein species.