Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Asialoglycoprotein

(Science: protein) The carbohydrate moiety of many vertebrate glycoproteins bears terminal residues of sialic acid.

If such residues are removed, for example by treatment with a neuraminidase, the resulting proteins are known as asialoglycoproteins. In the case of certain plasma proteins, the asialo derivatives are specifically bound by a receptor on the surface of liver parenchymal cells (the clearance receptor).