Volume 272, Number 24,
Issue of June 13, 1997
pp. 15270-15274
©1997 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Secretion of Human Furin into Mouse Milk
(Received for publication, March 18, 1997, and in revised form, April 9, 1997)
Rekha K.
Paleyanda
,
Roman
Drews
,
Timothy K.
Lee
and
Henryk
Lubo
From the J. Holland Laboratory, American Red Cross,
Rockville, Maryland 20855
We have previously described the expression of
the human proprotein convertase furin or paired basic amino
acid-cleaving enzyme, in mice transgenic for paired basic amino
acid-cleaving enzyme and human Protein C (HPC). Here we show 100-fold
or higher expression of furin in the mammary gland, compared with
endogenous furin. Furin and recombinant HPC were detected in the same
regions of the mammary gland and regulated similar to the endogenous
whey acidic protein. In addition to the expected intracellular
localization, furin was secreted into the milk as an 80-kDa form
lacking the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. Furin present at
levels of up to 40,000 units/ml milk cleaved the
t-butoxycarbonyl-RVRR-AMC substrate with a
Km of 32 µM, and processed the
recombinant HPC precursor at the appropriate sites. Surprisingly, the
expression of an active protease was not toxic to the mammary gland.
This is a rare example of an animal model secreting active truncated forms of a processing endoprotease into a bodily fluid.