Fibroblast cell attachment and growth on nanoengineered sculptured thin films.

Nanoengineered parylene-C sculptured thin films (STFs) are deposited on glass and silicon substrates using a direct one-step growth technique. The deposited STFs support fibroblast cell attachment and proliferation in vitro, which is an early indication of biocompatibility and bioactivity of this emerging class of biomaterials. Surface modification of endoprostheses of the small joints of the hand, which heal with fibrous stabilization, may be greatly enhanced by such nanoengineered biomaterials.

Age- and gender-related changes in ligament components.

The age- and gender-related changes in extracellular matrix components (elastin, elastin cross-links, fibrillin, collagen and glycoprotein) and mineral components (calcium, Ca; phosphorus, P) in human lumbar yellow ligaments were investigated using samples obtained from surgical specimens. The mineral (Ca and P) contents increased with ageing (r = 0.703 and r = 0.772, respectively), whereas the contents of matrix components tended to decrease with ageing (elastin r = -0.261, elastin cross-links r = -0.213, fibrillin r = 0.494; collagen r = -0.322 and glycoprotein r = -0.143). Comparison of the male and female groups revealed that the ligament elastin content and elastin cross-links decreased in the male group, whereas the ligament collagen content decreased in the female group significantly in an age-dependent manner (r = -0.788, r = -0.753 and r = -0.721, respectively). These findings demonstrate age- and gender-related changes in mineral and matrix components (especially elastin and collagen) in the lumbar yellow ligaments in the Japanese population. It is suggested that elastin and collagen metabolism in ligaments changes both with age and according to gender.

Processing of the fibrillin-1 carboxyl-terminal domain.

To investigate the processing and general properties of the fibrillin-1 carboxyl-terminal domain, three protein expression constructs have been developed as follows: one without the domain, one with the domain, and one with a mutation near the putative proteolytic processing site. The constructs have been expressed in two eukaryotic model systems, baculoviral and CHO-K1. Post-translational modifications that normally occur in fibrillin-1, including glycosylation, signal peptide cleavage, and carboxyl-terminal processing, occur in the three constructs in both cell systems. Amino-terminal sequencing of secreted protein revealed leader sequence processing at two sites, a primary site between Gly-24/Ala-25 and a secondary site of Ala-27/Asn-28. Processing of the carboxyl-terminal domain could be observed by migration differences in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and was evident in both mammalian and insect cells. Immunological identification by Western blotting confirmed the loss of the expected region. The failure of both cell systems to process the mutant construct shows that the multi-basic sequence is the site of proteolytic processing. Cleavage of the fibrillin-1 carboxyl-terminal domain occurred intracellularly in CHO-K1 cells in an early secretory pathway compartment as demonstrated by studies with secretion blocking agents. This finding, taken with the multi-basic nature of the cleavage site and observed calcium sensitivity of cleavage, suggests that the processing enzyme is a secretory pathway resident furin-like protease.

N-terminal domains of fibrillin 1 and fibrillin 2 direct the formation of homodimers: a possible first step in microfibril assembly.

Aggregation of fibrillin molecules via disulphide bonds is postulated to be an early step in microfibril assembly. By expressing fragments of fibrillin 1 and fibrillin 2 in a mammalian expression system, we found that the N-terminal region of each protein directs the formation of homodimers and that disulphide bonds stabilize this interaction. A large fragment of fibrillin 1 containing much of the region downstream from the N-terminus remained as a monomer when expressed in the same cell system, indicating that this region of the protein lacks dimerization domains. This finding also confirms that the overexpression of fibrillin fragments does not in itself lead to spurious dimer formation. Pulse-chase analysis demonstrated that dimer formation occurred intracellularly, suggesting that the process of fibrillin aggregation is initiated early after biosynthesis of the molecules. These findings also implicate the N-terminal region of fibrillin 1 and fibrillin 2 in directing the formation of a dimer intermediate that aggregates to form the functional microfibril.

Posttranslational modifications of microfibril associated glycoprotein-1 (MAGP-1).

Microfibril-associated glycoprotein-1 (MAGP-1) is a small molecular weight protein associated with extracellular matrix microfibrils. Biochemical studies have shown that MAGP-1 undergoes several posttranslational modifications that may influence its associations with other microfibrillar components. To identify the sites in the molecule where posttranslational modifications occur, we expressed MAGP-1 constructs containing various point mutations as well as front and back half truncations in CHO cells. Characterization of transiently expressed protein showed that MAGP-1 undergoes O-linked glycosylation and tyrosine sulfation at sites in its amino-terminal half. This region of the protein also served as a major amine acceptor site for transglutaminase and mediated self-assembly into high molecular weight multimers through a glutamine-rich sequence. Fine mapping of the modification sites through mutational analysis demonstrated that Gln20 is a major amine acceptor site for the transglutaminase reaction and confirmed that a canonical tyrosine sulfation consensus sequence is the site of MAGP-1 sulfation. Our results also show that O-glycosylation occurs at more than one site in the molecule.

Interaction of tropoelastin with the amino-terminal domains of fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2 suggests a role for the fibrillins in elastic fiber assembly.

Alignment of tropoelastin molecules during the process of elastogenesis is thought to require fibrillin-containing microfibrils. In this study, we have demonstrated that amino-terminal domains of two microfibrillar proteins, fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2, interact with tropoelastin in solid phase binding assays. The tropoelastin-binding site was localized to a region beginning at the glycine-rich and proline-rich regions of fibrillin-2 and fibrillin-1, respectively, and continuing through the second 8-cysteine domain. Characterization of the binding requirements using the fibrillin-2 construct found that a folded, secondary structure was necessary for binding. Furthermore, binding between tropoelastin and fibrillin was mediated by ionic interactions involving the lysine side chains of tropoelastin. The importance of the lysine side chains was corroborated by the finding that the fibrillin-2 construct did not bind to mature elastin, whose lysine side chains have been modified to form cross-links. Interestingly, there was no interaction between the fibrillin constructs and tropoelastin in solution phase, suggesting that binding of tropoelastin to a solid substrate exposes a cryptic binding site. These results suggest that fibrillin plays an important role in elastic fiber assembly by binding tropoelastin and perhaps facilitating side chain alignment for efficient cross-linking.

Genetic and physical mapping on chromosome 4 narrows the localization of the gene for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).

We have used a combination of classical RFLPs and PCR-based polymorphisms including CA repeats and single-strand conformation polymorphisms to generate a fine-structure genetic map of the distal long arm of chromosome 4q. This map is now genetically linked to the pre-existing anchor map of 4pter-4q31 and generates, for the first time, a complete linkage map of this chromosome. The map consists of 32 anchor loci placed with odds of greater than 1,000:1. The high-resolution map in the cytogenetic region surrounding 4q35 provides the order 4cen-D4S171-F11-D4S187-D4S163-D4S139-4q ter. When we used somatic cell hybrids from a t(X;4)(p21;q35) translocation, these five markers fell into three groups consistent with the genetic map-D4S171 and F11 in 4pter-4q35, D4S163 and D4S139 in 4q35-4qter, and D4S187 as a junction fragment between these two regions. These markers are in tight linkage to the gene for facioscapulo-humeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) mapped to this region by several collaborating investigators and provide a framework for further detailed analysis of this region.