Crohn disease is immunologically mediated and characterized by intestinal and systemic chronic inflammation. In a rat model, injection of peptidoglycan-polysaccharide complexes into the intestinal wall induced chronic inflammation in Lewis but neither Fischer nor Buffalo rats, indicating a differential genetic susceptibility. Proteolysis of plasma high molecular weight kininogen (HK) yielding bradykinin and cleaved HK (HKa) was faster in Lewis than in Fischer or Buffalo rat plasma. A single point mutation at nucleotide 1586 was found translating from Ser511 (Buffalo and Fisher) to Asn511 (Lewis). The latter defines an Asn-Xaa-Thr consensus sequence for N-glycosylation. We expressed these domains in Escherichia coli and found no differences in the rate of cleavage by purified kallikrein in the 3 strains in the absence of N-glycosylation. We then expressed these domains in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, which are capable of glycosylation, and found an increased rate of cleavage of Lewis HK. The Lewis mutation is associated with N-glycosylation as evidenced by a more rapid migration after treatment with N-glycosidase F. When CHO cells were cultured in the presence of tunicamycin, the kallikrein-induced cleavage rate of Lewis HK was not increased. This molecular alteration might be one contributing factor resulting in chronic inflammation in Lewis rats.