H2, the minor subunit of the human asialoglycoprotein receptor, trafficks intracellularly and forms homo-oligomers, but does not bind asialo-orosomucoid.

The functional human hepatic asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R) is a hetero-oligomer composed of two subunits, designated H1 and H2, which are highly homologous. Despite their extensive homology, the major H1 subunit is stably expressed by itself, whereas in the absence of H1 most of the H2 subunits are degraded in the ER. In this study, we were able to investigate the capability of the minor ASGP-R subunit, H2, to function independently of H1, because it was apparently stabilized by fusing its NH(2) terminus with an epitope tag. We could thus create stable cell lines in hepatoma-derived SK-Hep-1 cells that expressed the H2 subunit alone. H2 was expressed on the cell surface and was internalized, predominantly through the clathrin-coated pit pathway. Since the internal pool of H2 was also able to traffick to the cell surface, we conclude that H2 recycles between the surface and intracellular compartments, similar to the constitutive recycling of hetero-oligomeric ASGP-R complexes. However, the rate of H2 recycling and internalization was approximately 25-33% that of H1. Similar to H1, the H2 polypeptides were also able to self-associate to form homo-oligomers, including trimers and tetramers. However, unlike H1, which can bind the ligand asialo-orosomucoid (ASOR) when overexpressed in COS-7 cells, H2 failed to bind or endocytose ASOR. In summary, the H2 subunit of the human ASGP-R contains functional, although weak, signal(s) for endocytosis and recycling and has the ability to oligomerize. H2 homo-oligomers, however, do not create binding sites for desialylated glycoproteins, such as ASOR, that contain tri- and tetra-antennary N-linked oligosaccharides. Nonetheless, these results raise the intriguing possibility that naturally occurring H2 homo-oligomers may exist in human hepatocytes and have an as yet undiscovered function.