Human fl-glucuronidase (fl-D-glucuronide glucuronosohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.31), like many other glycoprotein lysosomal hydrolases, is specifically taken up from the culture medium by human fibroblasts. Prior work has indicated that the enzyme exhibits charge heterogeneity and that "highuptake" forms, i.e., those rapidly internalized by human fibroblasts, are more acidic than, slowly internalized forms. Here we present two lines of evidence that the acidic group required for the high-uptake property of certain forms of the enzyme is a phosphate on, or in proximity to, a D-mannose-type carbohydrate. The first line of evidence was obtained from analysis of inhibition of enzyme pinocytosis by yeast mannans, phosphorylated sugars, and sugars. Mannans that contained phosphate were more potent inhibitors than those that did not contain phosphate. iD-Mannose 6-phosphate was a more potent inhibitor than either D-mannose 1-phosphate or 2-deoxy-D-glucose 6-phosphate. D-Mannose and certain related sugars were weak pinocytosis inhibitors, while 2-and 4-epimers of mannose were noninhibitory. Competitive inhibition was demonstrated and the apparent K is estimated for the following compounds: Saccharomyces cerevisiae mannan from mutant X2180-mnnl, 3 X 10-6 M; mannan from wild-type S. cerevisiae, 3 X 10-5 M; D-mannose 6-phosphate, 6 X 10-5 M; L-fucose, 4 X 10-2 M; and D-mannose, 6 X 10-2 M. The second line of evidence comes from the observation that alkaline phosphatase [orthophosphoricmonoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum), EC 3.1.3.1] treatment of human platelet fl-glucuronidase abolished its "high-ptake" activity, without diminishing its catalytic activity, and converted some forms of the heterogeneous enzyme to less acidic forms.Pinocytosis of lysosomal enzymes, identified by Neufeld and coworkers (1) as uptake of corrective factors by enzyme-deficient fibroblasts, displays the selectivity and saturability expected for a receptor-mediated process (2). Several investigators (3-5) have studied kinetic aspects of this process with enzymes from different sources. Hickman and Neufeld (6) suggested that many lysosomal hydrolases have similar components that are essential for their recognition and uptake by human fibroblasts. This suggestion was based on the observation that fibroblasts from patients homozygous for a single gene mutation (I-cell disease) secrete several hydrolases which are not specifically pinocytosed (6). The finding that periodate treatment of fihexosaminidase secreted by normal fibroblasts destroyed its uptake activity led to the suggestion that the "recognition component" on the enzyme contains carbohydrate (7).We have utilized fl-glucuronidase (f3-D-glucuronide glucuronosohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.31) to study this pinocytosis process. Previously published studies have shown (i) that human f,-glucuronidase from all tissue sources investigated exhibits charge heterogeneity (8); (ii) that high-uptake forms, which are specifically pinocytosed by fibroblasts, are more acidic than the low-uptake, or poorly ...