FIGURE 1.

Schematic and characterization of recombinant versican polypeptides and antibodies used in this study. A, schematic of human versican (V1) is shown. Recombinant versican polypeptides, rVN, rVNβ, and rVC are designed as indicated. The recombinant polypeptide rVNβ consists of the G1 domain and the N-terminal portion of the chondroitin sulfate β domain, which ends with the amino acid sequence DPEAAE⁴⁴¹ and represents the cleavage site utilized by ADAMTS-1, ADAMTS-4, and ADAMTS-5. Recognition sites for pAb 6084, pAb 7080, pAb 8531, mAb 12C5, and mAb 2B1 are indicated. B, the purified recombinant polypeptides rVN, rVNβ, rVC, and conditioned medium from normal dermal fibroblasts treated with the chondroitinase ABC were subjected to SDS-PAGE under nonreducing conditions and detected by Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB) and immunoblotting. Antibodies used for detection are indicated at the top. CRP, complement regulatory protein.