Hypodermin A, a trypsin-like neutral proteinase from the insect Hypoderma lineatum.

Hypodermin A, a serine proteinase from the larva Hypoderma lineatum, with a molecular weight of 27 000 was obtained in pure form by ion-exchange chromatography. It is inhibited by diisopropyl phosphofluorate, a serine proteinase inhibitor, but not by metallo or cysteine enzyme inhibitors such as EDTA or thiol reagents. In the same way, it is fully inactivated by trypsin inhibitors, but not by specific chymotrypsin inhibitors. Its specificity, limited to carboxyl side of arginine residue in B-chain of insulin, is more complicated on other polypeptide substrates. Sequence analysis suggests structural homology with H. lineatum collagenase as well as with other members of the trypsin family.

On the complex formation between basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor and TLCK-, TPCK-derivatives of beta-trypsin.

The study of the interaction of the pancreatic inhibitor with different alkylated derivatives of alpha- and beta-trypsin shows that: 1) TLCK-beta-trypsin forms a complex with pancreatic inhibitor in tris buffer and tris-ethanol 40% system. 2) TLCK-alpha-trypsin and TLCK-TPCK-beta-trypsin have lost their ability to complex formation with pancreatic inhibitor. TLCK-alpha-trypsin and TLCK-TPCK-beta-trypsin are in derivatives in which the "chymotryptic" active site is destroyed. The results presented in this paper prove the participation of the "chymotrypic" active site in the interaction between trypsin and pancreatic inhibitor. This is the second interaction beside that of the electrostatic bond between Asp-117 of trypsin and Lys-15 of the inhibitor which we proved earlier.

Solubilization and characterization of Chondrosia reniformis sponge collagen.

Chondrosia reniformis sponge collagen, insoluble in its native form, was solubilized by chemical modification of lysyl residues. The solubilized sponge collagen had the same amino acid composition as insoluble collagen and the helicoidal tertiary structure was found by negative Cotton effect to be the same as in native vertebrate collagens. Achromobacter iophagus collagenase, a collagen specific protease, hydrolyzed the soluble sponge collagen. These experiments confirmed that the protein had the same structure as collagen.

Plasma fibronectin: three steps to purification and stability.

Large amounts of soluble fibronectin were easily purified from cryoprecipitated or fresh citrated human blood plasma by a three-step combination of gelatin and heparin-cellufine affinity chromatography. The elution conditions were optimized to obtain a homogeneous fraction on SDS-PAGE and Western blot under reducing condition. No proteolytic activities were detected by zymography at acidic or neutral pH. Furthermore, the fibronectin preparation was stable over time up to 456 h at 37 degrees C in the presence of calcium, zinc, or mercury. This preparation of very stable fibronectin, called highly purified fibronectin (hpFN), gave a yield of 7.00 +/- 0.77 mg of fibronectin per gram of cryoprecipitated plasma and 0.16 mg of fibronectin per milliliter of fresh citrated, giving a yield of 32 to 53% (from presumed fibronectin concentration). This preparation may be useful for cellular tests and interaction analysis.

alpha-Clostripain. Chemical characterization, activity, and thiol content of the highly active form of clostripain.

A highly active form of clostripain, composed of two polypeptide chains (Mr = 43,000 and 12,500), was isolated by hydrophobic chromatography from the culture medium of Clostridium histolyticum. It differs in amino acid composition, namely in the value for cyst(e)ine, from that previously reported. The analyses of the separated chains are given. Activity is related to the number of free cysteine residues and full activity is obtained only after complete reduction of the disulfide bonds. Specific modifications by sulfhydryl reagents and tosyl lysine chloromethyl ketone of one thiol group, the one implicated in the activity, are reported. High specificity of alpha-clostripain is restricted to arginyl peptide bonds as tested on parvalbumin.

Enzymic properties of nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin.

Chymotrypsinogen A and alpha-chymotrypsin are both nitrated at tyrosines 146 and 171 by reaction with tetranitromethane. This substitution was essentially without influence on the overall rate constant for hydrolyses of N-acetyl-L-tryptophan methyl ester and N-acetyl-L-tyrosine ethyl ester catalyzed by alpha-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin, prepared by fast tryptic activation of nitrated chymotrypsinogen. With both ester substrates Km was doubled for nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin. Nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin, nitrated delta-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin could all bind N-acetyl-L-tryptophan methyl ester at alkaline pH, in contrast to alpha-chymotrypsin. The dissociation constant, Kd, of the complex of alpha-chymotrypsin and basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor was lowered ten-fold relative to the constant obtained with unmodified alpha-chymotrypsin. The nitrated delta-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin showed identical Kd values. The nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin is inactivated faster at pH 8.0 and 8.5 than alpha-chymotrypsin and apparently by a different mechanism.

Collagen-binding domain of human plasma fibronectin contains a latent type-IV collagenase.

Cleavage of the 45-kDa gelatin-binding fragment of human plasma fibronectin with fibronectinase resulted in the activation of two forms of metalloproteinase with different substrate specificities. The 40-kDa FN-type-IV collagenase A degrades heat-denatured type-I collagen, laminin and also native collagen type IV. The 27-kDa FN-type-IV collagenase B degrades native collagen type IV, but it does not cleave laminin and only poorly degrades gelatin. Both enzymes begin with the same N-terminal sequence VYQPQPH- (residues 262-268 of fibronectin) but, contrary to the FN-type-IV collagenase A, the FN-type-IV collagenase B has lost the C-terminal region of type I repeats, where the major gelatin-binding determinants of fibronectin are located. The FN-type-IV collagenases A and B are sequentially similar to the middle domain (domain II) of collagenase type IV, secreted by H-ras-transformed human bronchial epithelial cells. Substrate and inhibition specificity of FN-type-IV collagenase A and B are different from those of FN-gelatinase and FN-laminase, isolated previously from the central and C-terminal fibronectin domains, respectively. The substrate specificity of both enzymes, characterized in this study, is also different from that of already known matrix-degrading metalloproteinases.

[Role of a collagenase in the latent proteolytic activity of fibronectin]. / Rôle d'une collagénase dans l'activité protéolytique latente de la fibronectine.

Fibronectin fragments generated by Achromobacter iophagus collagenase exhibit a gelatinolytic activity. This activity is inhibited by phenyl-methyl-sulfonyl fluoride and pepstatin A. After separation of this collagenase digest of fibronectin on heparin Ultrogel, a laminase activity was also evidenced using laminin and the synthetic peptide Gly-Pro-Ala-Gly-Pro-Arg as substrates. Different results were obtained with a cathepsin D digest of fibronectin that exhibited gelatinolytic and laminolytic activities only after incubation with Ca++. This suggests that the proteinases produced by hydrolysis of fibronectin enhance the effect of collagenase on extracellular matrix proteins.

Collagenase activation of latent matrix-degrading proteinases from human plasma fibronectin.

Fibronectin contains two latent gelatinolytic enzymes, FN-gelatinase and FN-laminase that can be activated in the presence of Ca2+ from the purified cathepsin D-produced 190-kDa fibronectin fragment. The results of this work show that Achromobacter collagenase cleaves fibronectin and generates an active FN-gelatinase. In contrast to the cathepsin D digest, the collagenase digest directly exhibits gelatinolytic activity without additional activation. The gelatinolytic activity of the total collagenase digest can be inhibited by phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, a serine proteinase inhibitor and by pepstatin A, an aspartic-acid proteinase inhibitor. FN-laminase activity, when assayed with its synthetic substrate GPAGPR and also with laminin was revealed after separation of the collagenase digest of fibronectin on heparin Ultrogel. FN-gelatinase and FN-laminase activities were found in heparin unretained and heparin strongly retained fractions. These results have demonstrated that in contrast to cathepsin D, Achromobacter collagenase activates two matrix-degrading proteinases from fibronectin, FN-Gelatinase und FN-Laminase.

Potential proteolytic activity of fibronectin: fibronectin laminase and its substrate specificity.

The purified 190-kDa fibronectin fragment produced by cathepsin D can be spontaneously activated in the presence of CaCl2. This activation generates new proteolytic activities and also results in the formation of several subfragments. One of them exhibits the activity of FN-gelatinase that preferentially splits type I denatured collagen and fibronectin (see preceding paper). In this work we describe the purification and characterization of another fragment (25 kDa), issued from the same autodigest. This fragment may be activated to yield another proteinase, that splits preferentially laminin and denatured collagen type I. This enzyme will be referred as FN-laminase. Purified FN-laminase specifically reacted with antibodies against fibronectin. The specificity of bond cleavage by FN-laminase was studied with various synthetic peptides analogous to collagen repeats. FN-laminase cleaves the Ala-Gly bond in the sequence GPAGPR; the arginine residue in position P3' is important for this cleavage. The enzyme is inhibited by pepstatin A and phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, like retroviral aspartic proteinases. It is also inhibited by EDTA. No inhibition was obtained with 1,10-phenanthroline or 4-chloromercuribenzoate, inhibitors of Zn-metalloproteinases or cysteine proteinases, respectively.

[Proteolytic potential of fibronectin and degradation of extracellular matrix]. / Potentiel protéolytique de la fibronectine et dégradation de la matrice extracellulaire.

Fibronectin is one of the major adhesive glycoproteins and bears interaction sites for both cell receptors and the extracellular matrix. Disappearance of fibronectin is the first step of cellular transformation in carcinogenesis. This phenomenon has been ascribed to increased proteolysis of fibronectin or of its cellular receptor. Results obtained during previous studies by the authors have shown that the fibronectin molecule has latent proteolytic activities which become apparent only after the action of other external proteases. Two proteinases, FN-gelatinase and FN-laminase, were identified in cathepsin D fibronectin digest. The acute activity of these two proteases is responsible for degradation of the extracellular matrix. Furthermore, the sequences and functions of both enzymes share a number of features with retroviral proteases.

Potential proteolytic activity of human plasma fibronectin: fibronectin gelatinase.

Human plasma fibronectin contains a latent proteinase that after activation cleaves gelatin and fibronectin. The autoactivation propensity of the two purified cathepsin D-produced fragments of fibronectin (190 and 120 kDa) was compared. Both polypeptides were spontaneously activated in the presence of Ca2+. This activation was inhibited by EDTA. The active gelatinase was isolated from the autodigest of the 190-kDa fragment. Among various protein substrates, including laminin and native type I and IV collagens, the purified enzyme degraded only gelatin and fibronectin. We have named this proteinase FN-gelatinase. FN-gelatinase is inhibited by phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride and also by pepstatin A like retroviral aspartic proteinases. The amino-acid composition of the purified enzyme (35 kDa) was compared with the entire fibronectin sequence using the computer programme FIT. The optimal fit indicated that the 35-kDa fragment corresponds to the stretch # 1043-1404. This sequence contains a 93-residue segment (# 1140-1233) analogous to retroviral aspartic proteinases, comprising the sequence DTG of their putative active site.