When coated on bacteriological plastic at doses greater than or equal to 0.1 microgram/cm2, human and bovine angiogenin support calf pulmonary artery endothelial and Chinese hamster fibroblast cell adhesion and spreading, but do not affect cell adhesion when in solution. The kinetics of endothelial cell attachment to angiogenin are indistinguishable from those in the presence of gelatin. Calcium and/or magnesium ions are critical for cell adhesion or spreading onto angiogenin but protein synthesis and glycoprotein secretion are not necessary. Adhesion to angiogenin is not altered by the addition to the incubation solution of fibronectin, fibrinogen, laminin, collagen I and IV, or vitronectin. The peptide Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser inhibits endothelial cell response to angiogenin whereas the reverse peptide Ser-Asp-Gly-Arg-Gly has no effect. These findings show that angiogenin can serve as an effective substratum for cell adhesion by inducing an interaction similar to but independent from that of other extracellular matrix molecules. Induction of cell adhesion and subsequent migration may be critical steps in the process of angiogenesis.