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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 49, 51208-51217, December 3, 2004
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From the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Research Center, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Received for publication, August 6, 2004 , and in revised form, September 7, 2004.
| ABSTRACT |
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Gly and Arg233
Ser). The widespread expression of ADAMTS10 suggests that furin, a ubiquitously expressed proprotein convertase, is the likely processing enzyme. ADAMTS10 expressed in HEK293F and COS-1 cells is N-glycosylated and is secreted into the medium, as well as sequestered at the cell surface and extracellular matrix, as demonstrated by cell surface biotinylation and immunolocalization in nonpermeabilized cells. ADAMTS10 is a functional metalloprotease as demonstrated by cleavage of
2-macroglobulin, although physiological substrates are presently unknown. | INTRODUCTION |
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ADAMTS proteases are modular, consisting of a protease domain and an ancillary domain (23). The protease domain of these enzymes, like that of ADAMs, but not MMPs, is of the reprolysin (snake venom) type. The hallmark of the ADAMTS proteases is the presence of at least one thrombospondin type 1 repeat (TSR). Other highly conserved modules are arranged around this central TSR in a specific organization, and there are additional TSRs near the carboxyl terminus in all members of the ADAMTS family with the exception of ADAMTS4 (23). ADAMTS proteases are synthesized as zymogens that are targeted to the secretory pathway and activated by proprotein convertases. Zymogen processing leads to removal of a 200220-amino acid-long prodomain in the secretory pathway or at the cell surface.
19 mammalian ADAMTS proteases are known, and all except ADAMTS10, the subject of this article, have previously been described in the literature. Within the ADAMTS family, subsets of proteases have highly conserved domain organization, primary sequence and gene structure, suggestive of a close evolutionary and perhaps functional relationship (7, 20, 22, 23). In this context, determination of the primary structure of ADAMTS10 led to realization of a putative long form of ADAMTS6, whose domain organization and primary structure support the contention that it forms a phylogenetic subset with ADAMTS10. Unlike most other ADAMTS proteases, including ADAMTS6 (24), ADAMTS10 is widely expressed. We investigated the developmental regulation of the Adamts10 gene in mice and the activation mechanism and localization of the enzyme in cultured cells. ADAMTS10 is shown to be a functional metalloprotease, although its physiological substrates are presently unknown.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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To confirm that the overlapping human cDNAs were derived from a single transcript, we designed PCR primers incorporating the most 5' cloned human sequence and the stop codon of the ADAMTS10 ORF (forward primer, 5'-AAGAATTCAGAGACATGTGGACACGTGG-3' (EcoRI site underlined, start codon in boldface type); reverse primer, 5'-AAGTCGACCGAGTGGCCCTGGCAGGTTTTGC-3' (SalI site underlined, modified stop codon (to Ser) in boldface type)). PCR was done using human fetal lung cDNA or human lung cancer cell line A549 cDNA as templates (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA) and using the following conditions: 95 °C for 1 min and then 30 cycles of 95 °C for 30 s, 58 °C for 30 s, and 68 °C for 5 min. The resulting 3.2-kbp amplicon was gel-purified, ligated into pGEM-T Easy (Promega, Madison, WI), and sequenced.
The mouse IMAGE clone 1077653 (EST AA822090 [GenBank] ) was detected in GenBankTM as a presumptive Adamts10 clone,2 purchased from Research Genetics (Huntsville, AL), and its 1.6-kbp insert was sequenced in its entirety. Additional 5' mouse cDNA sequence was deduced from mouse genomic sequences (available with GenBankTM accession numbers AC073802 [GenBank] and AC073766 [GenBank] ), using the GENSCAN program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (available on the World Wide Web at CCR-081.mit.edu/GENSCAN.html) to predict the exons in these sequences. The complete mouse ADAMTS10 ORF was amplified by PCR of mouse 17.5-day-old embryo cDNA in similar fashion to that described above for the human cDNA.
Northern AnalysisMouse embryo Northern blots and multiple tissue Northern blots from adult human and mouse tissues and from human cancer cell lines (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA, and Seegene Inc.) were hybridized to the [
-32P]dCTP-labeled inserts of human and mouse ADAMTS10 IMAGE clones, as per the manufacturer's recommendations, followed by autoradiographic exposure for 4 days.
In Situ HybridizationAdamts10 IMAGE clone 1077653 was digested with StuI and XhoI to delete 792 bp of the 1642-bp insert. The plasmid containing the remainder was blunt-ended with Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA) and religated to obtain an 850-bp Adamts10 cDNA encoding part of the cysteine-rich domain, spacer domain, and first two TSRs (plasmid 1077653X1). This plasmid was used to transcribe sense and antisense cRNA probes continuously labeled with [35S]UTP. Paraffin sections of formaldehyde-fixed mouse embryos of age 9.5, 12.5, 14.5, 15.5, and 17.5 days were hybridized to the Adamts10 probes as previously described (20), followed by dipping in photographic emulsion for autoradiography. Adamts10 autoradiographic signal was visualized with dark field microscopy, whereas cell nuclei were stained with 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (Hoechst 33258 dye; Sigma), which fluoresces blue under UV light.
ADAMTS10 Expression PlasmidsThe preprocatalytic coding region of human ADAMTS10 (ADAMTS10-(1463)) was amplified by PCR using the oligonucleotide primers 5'-AAGAATTCGGCCTCTATGGCTCCCGCC-3' (forward primer) and 5'-AAGTCGACCACAAAGTCCTGTCTGGG-3' (reverse primer; introduced SalI site is underlined) and Advantage 2 high fidelity polymerase (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA). The PCR products were gel-purified and ligated to the pGEM-T easy vector (Promega Corp., Madison, WI). The insert of a sequence-verified clone was then ligated into the EcoRI and XhoI site of pcDNAmyc His A+ (Invitrogen) for expression of ADAMTS10-(1463) with a C-terminal tandem myc and His6 tag. The full-length ADAMTS10 cDNA described above was cloned in frame with a C-terminal tandem myc and His6 tag
Transfection and Selection of Stable Cell LinesHEK293F cells (Invitrogen) at 80% confluence were transfected in 6-well plates with 100 ng of full-length ADAMTS10 or ADAMTS10-(1463) expression plasmid DNA using Fugene 6 (Roche Applied Science) as per manufacturer's instructions. At the first medium change, it was supplemented with 1 mg/ml G418 (Mediatech, Herndon, VA). Discrete colonies were isolated using cloning discs (PGC Scientific, Frederick, MD) and expanded. Western blotting with anti-myc monoclonal antibody 9E10 (Invitrogen) was used to determine the level of protein expression in the media of these clones.
Expression and Characterization of ADAMTS10 and ADAMTS10-(1463)Stably transfected cells expressing full-length ADAMTS10 and ADAMTS10-(1463) were cultured in three-tier flasks (Nunc, Rochester, NY) in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. When cultures were 80% confluent, the serum-containing medium was replaced with serum-free 293CD medium (Invitrogen) followed by further culture at 37 °C in the presence of 8% CO2 for 5 days. Conditioned medium was collected, centrifuged briefly to remove cellular debris, and supplemented with NaCl to a final concentration of 0.5 M. ProBond resin (Invitrogen) was prepared by washing with 1 bed volume of binding buffer (0.5 M NaCl, 20 mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.8). The media and resin were mixed overnight at 4 °C in a 1:1 (v/v) ratio in binding buffer. After this binding step, the resin was pelleted by centrifugation at 1000 x g and then washed five times with 10 resin bed volumes of binding buffer. Bound proteins were eluted by sequential washes with binding buffer containing 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 mM imidazole. The washes and eluted protein fractions were assayed for the presence and purity of desired proteins by Western blotting (using anti-myc monoclonal antibody) and by reducing SDS-PAGE with Coomassie Blue staining, respectively. Maximal yield was obtained on elution in 100250 mM imidazole.
Following purification of ADAMTS10-(1463), major bands of
52,
50, and
29 kDa were excised after electroblotting to a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane. N-terminal sequence was determined by Edman degradation at the National Institutes of Health-supported Biotechnology Core of the Lerner Research Institute.
For identification of the zymogen-processing enzyme, ADAMTS10-(1463)-expressing cells were treated with increasing concentrations (1100 µM) of the lipid-permeable furin inhibitor decanoyl-Arg-Val-Lys-Arg-chloromethylketone (dec-RVKR-cmk) (Calbiochem) for 24 h, and secreted protein was detected by Western blot analysis of conditioned medium as previously described (22). Purified ADAMTS10-(1463) was deglycosylated with PNGase F (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA) and detected by Western blotting with anti-myc antibody 9E10 as previously described (20, 22).
Characterization of full-length ADAMTS10 was done using stably transfected HEK293F cells or transiently transfected COS cells or substantially purified protein. Western blotting was done with anti-myc antibody 9E10. Protein deglycosylation was done as previously described using purified protein (20, 22). Processing of
2-macroglobulin (
2-M) was tested by incubation with purified protein as described previously (22). Proteolysis of the aggrecan core protein using ADAMTS10- and ADAMTS4-transfected cells was evaluated as described previously (20, 22). Briefly, equal numbers of transfected cells were incubated with 20 µg of aggrecan, and the presence of a cleaved peptide bond detected by the anti-AGEG neoepitope antibody (26) was sought by Western blotting of the aggrecan as previously described (20).
ADAMTS10 Localization in Transfected CellsThese studies examined the distribution of full-length ADAMTS10 in vitro, in regard to the cells expressing it. COS-1 cells (ATCC, Manassas, VA) were transiently transfected with 1 µg of full-length ADAMTS10 prior to immunofluorescent localization of secreted protein in nonpermeabilized cells, essentially as previously described (27). ADAMTS10 was detected using antibody 9E10 and Alexa-488-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondary antibody (Molecular Probes, Inc., Eugene, OR) in an indirect immunofluorescence method that does not detect intracellular protein. Following staining for tagged ADAMTS10, cells were permeabilized and nuclei were stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole as previously described (27), followed by fluorescent microscopy. Medium, cell lysate, and extracellular matrix from these cultures and from stably transfected HEK293F cells were collected as previously described and subjected to immunoblotting with antibody 9E10 following reducing SDS-PAGE (27). Stably transfected HEK293F cells expressing ADAMTS10 in suspension were biotinylated as previously described (22). Isolation of biotinylated proteins from the cell surface and their analysis by electrophoresis was as previously described (22). As a control, cells were treated with trypsin to eliminate all cell surface proteins prior to biotinylation, essentially as previously described (22).
| RESULTS |
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Features of the Primary Structure of ADAMTS10 Numerous sequence features in mouse and human ADAMTS10 are very highly conserved (Fig. 1B), and the discussion that follows pertains to human ADAMTS10, mentioning mouse ADAMTS10 only where it differs. Overall, the domains of ADAMTS10 are very similar to those of other ADAMTSs, and each of its domains is comparable in length and number of cysteine residues with those of the other ADAMTS proteases (24).
The start codon is followed by a signal peptide containing a region of 11 hydrophobic residues (Trp10Phe20), suggesting that ADAMTS10 is a secreted protein (Fig. 1B). According to consensus observations made for a number of proteins (the so-called -1, -3 rule) (29), it can be predicted that signal peptidase cleavage probably occurs following Ala25, and the secreted zymogen has the N terminus Phe26-Arg-Ser-Gln.
The prodomain, extending from Phe26 to Arg233, by analogy with other ADAMTS proteases is somewhat unusual in the ADAMTS family in containing only one sequence motif, in complete agreement with the proproteinase convertase recognition sequence Arg-Xaa-Arg/Lys-Arg (i.e. Arg-Gln-Arg-Arg66) (Fig. 1B) (3537). Most ADAMTS proteases have multiple proprotein convertase recognition sites, with the most C-terminal of these undergoing the processing that yields the final processed form (16, 20, 22, 30). At the expected location corresponding to the final processing site (i.e. Arg233), the sequence (Gly-Leu-Lys-Arg233) does not match the optimal furin consensus (Fig. 1B). There is a dibasic motif encompassing the P1 and P2 residues, but the P4 residue is Gly, and there is not a compensating Arg residue at the P6 position (37). However, there is a Ser residue at the putative P1' position, which is found in over 50% of processed proproteins (37). The prodomain contains two N-linked glycosylation sites (Asn-Xaa-Ser/Thr, where Xaa can be any amino acid except Pro) (Fig. 1B).
The ADAMTS10 catalytic domain contains a typical zinc-binding active site sequence (Fig. 1B) that is not, however, identical to any other ADAMTS protease. The catalytic domain, disintegrin-like domain, and cysteine-rich domain have the typical sequence layout and number of cysteine residues (8, 8, and 10, respectively) seen in other ADAMTS and are predicted to be internally disulfide-bonded. The central TSR of ADAMTS10 contains a possible sulfatide/glycosaminoglycan (GAG) binding motif (Trp550-Thr-Pro-Trp) at its N terminus and also contains a basic region (Arg591-Arg-Arg-His-Arg) that could mediate GAG binding (Fig. 1B). The four C-terminal TSRs do not have these motifs and do not resemble each other substantially, although each has the conserved N-terminal Trp residue and the signature six-cysteine arrangement typical of TSRs. At the carboxyl terminus of ADAMTS10, a cluster of six cysteine residues has the hallmark arrangement of a PLAC (protease and lacunin) domain (Fig. 1B). This domain was first described in an ADAMTS-like ECM protein, lacunin (31), and is also found toward the carboxyl terminus of some proprotein convertases and ADAMTS proteases.
In addition to glycosylation within the prodomain, other consensus N-linked glycosylation sites are present and conserved within mouse and human ADAMTS10, predicting that activated ADAMTS10 is likely to be a glycoprotein. Two such sites are located in the spacer and one within TSR3. An N-linked glycosylation site in the catalytic domain of human ADAMTS10 is absent in the mouse. The predicted molecular mass of the human and mouse ADAMTS10 zymogen and fully processed forms are 118 and 95 kDa, respectively.
Homology to ADAMTS10 Uncovers a Longer Form of ADAMTS6 (ADAMTS6B)The close sequence similarity of ADAMTS10 to ADAMTS6 led us to ask whether there existed a longer form of this protease with the same modular organization as ADAMTS10. Analysis of 3' genomic sequence of ADAMTS6 revealed previously unknown exons that could splice to a putative splice donor site 150 bp upstream of the previously identified ADAMTS6 stop codon (24). The conceptual translation product that included the new exons added three additional TSRs and a C-terminal PLAC domain to the cognate ADAMTS6 protein, mirroring precisely the structure of ADAMTS10. This conceptual product of ADAMTS6 is designated ADAMTS6B (Fig. 1B), and its existence is supported by numerous ESTs in GenBankTM.
ADAMTS10 and ADAMTS6B have an identical domain organization and amino acid identity and similarity (includes conserved amino acid substitutions) of 59 and 73%, respectively. The conservation extends to the positioning of two ADAMTS6 proprotein convertase processing sites (Arg-Arg-Arg-Arg65 and Arg-Gln-Lys-Arg244), a highly similar zinc binding sequence within the active site (differing in one amino acid), and two N-linked glycosylation sites (Fig. 1B). A Gly-Ser835-Gly-Asp-Asn-Glu motif in the ADAMTS6 spacer (Fig. 1B) is relevant in light of the recent discovery of GAG attachment in ADAMTS7B (22). The two adjacent acidic residues (italicized above) may favor GAG attachment to the boldface Ser residue (32). This sequence motif is missing in ADAMTS10 (Fig. 1B). ADAMTS17 and ADAMTS19 (33) also have five TSRs and a C-terminal PLAC domain, but they have less homology to ADAMTS10 (e.g. ADAMTS19 has 32% amino acid sequence identity and 44% similarity) and are thus less closely related to ADAMTS10 than is ADAMTS6.
ADAMTS6B and ADAMTS10 have identical gene structures, each having 25 exons with conserved splice boundaries (Fig. 1B). ADAMTS10 maps to human chromosome 19 and mouse chromosome 17. Gene location has been experimentally validated by interspecific backcross analysis in the mouse and radiation hybrid mapping in humans.3 ADAMTS6 maps to human chromosome 6 and mouse chromosome 13 (24).
ADAMTS10 mRNA Is Widely ExpressedAdamts10 was expressed at all four mouse developmental ages examined. Maximal expression was seen in 15- and 17-day-old embryos (Fig. 2A, left panel), and the lowest levels were present in 7-day-old embryos. A single mRNA of
5 kb was detected in the mouse. A similar sized mRNA of comparable or greater intensity was seen in some adult mouse tissues such as the heart and lungs (Fig. 2A, right panel). Fainter bands were seen in kidney, liver, spleen, brain, and testis, and no Adamts10 message was detectable in adult skeletal muscle. The ADAMTS10 (human) mRNA differed in that two species of 5 and 8 kb were detected on Northern blots from human organs and cell lines (Fig. 2B). Widespread expression was also seen in human tissues, and as in the mouse, skeletal muscle had the lowest levels of expression (Fig. 2B, left panel). Of the human cancer cell lines examined (Fig. 2B, right panel), the highest expression was seen in the A549 cell line, a lung-carcinoma-derived line with characteristics of a type II alveolar cell.
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Characterization of ADAMTS10 in Transfected HEK293F CellsWestern blotting of serum-containing conditioned medium from HEK293F cells stably transfected with myc-tagged human ADAMTS10 revealed a single band sized approximately at 130 kDa (Fig. 5A) or two closely approximated bands of nearly the same size (Fig. 5B). The
130-kDa immunoreactive bands significantly exceeded the predicted size of the ADAMTS10 zymogen (118 kDa) or mature enzyme (95 kDa). When stably transfected cells were cultured in serum-free medium, a number of immunoreactive bands were detectable by Western blotting using the anti c-myc antibody (Fig. 5A); this indicated that ADAMTS10 undergoes proteolysis in the absence of serum.
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100 kDa also emerged after deglycosylation, which may represent the mature ADAMTS10 enzyme (Fig. 5B). Other bands were smaller than expected and may be derived by proteolytic degradation of ADAMTS10. The secreted product of ADAMTS10-(1463) transfected cells was also deglycosylated using PNGase F, but as predicted by the primary sequence, glycosylation was restricted to the prodomain, since migration of the 29-kDa fully processed catalytic domain was unaffected by PNGase F treatment (Fig. 5B, right panel). Four major myc-reactive bands were present in the medium of ADAMTS10-(1463)-transfected cells, namely, a pair of bands (52 and 54 kDa), possibly representing the zymogen and Arg64-processed zymogen, an uncharacterized intermediate of 37 kDa, and the 29-kDa mature derivative of ADAMTS10-(1463). The failure of PNGase F to alter the relative size difference between the paired
130-kDa (full-length ADAMTS10) and 5254-kDa (ADAMTS10-(1463)) bands suggested that they have different N termini. ADAMTS10 was able to cleave the broad spectrum protease substrate/inhibitor
2-M (Fig. 5C). Cleavage of
2-M within its bait region results in the entrapment of the cleaving protease in an irreversible complex with this protease inhibitor (34). Thus, an apparent size shift of myc-tagged ADAMTS10 is observed under nonreducing conditions, indicating cleavage of the inhibitor and entrapment of the enzyme (Fig. 5C). Pretreatment of the enzyme with 10 mM EDTA resulted in the abolition of the size shift, confirming the proteolytic activity of ADAMTS10 as a metalloprotease (Fig. 5C). To assess whether ADAMTS10 was able to cut the large aggregating proteoglycan aggrecan, we used an antibody that detects a neoepitope generated by ADAMTS4/5/9 cleavage of the Glu1771-Ala1772 peptide bond of the aggrecan core protein (26). ADAMTS10 digestion produced no detectable immunoreactivity of aggrecan to the neoepitope antibody on Western blots (Fig. 5D). In contrast, ADAMTS4 digestion did generate the neoepitope, as has been previously described (Fig. 5D) (20, 26).
Characterization of ADAMTS10 Zymogen ProcessingBecause of its smaller size, which allows for easier discrimination of processed species from the zymogen, ADAMTS10-(1463) was used for studies of zymogen processing. ADAMTS10-(1463) was substantially purified from stably transfected HEK293F cells by chromatography on nickel-Sepharose (Fig. 6A, left panel). Bands visible on Coomassie Blue-stained gels (Fig. 6A, left panel) corresponded to bands prominent on Western blotting of the purified protein using anti-myc (Fig. 6A, right panel), although the smaller amount of protein in Fig. 5B better permits distinction of the 52- and 54-kDa bands. N-terminal sequencing indicated the origin of the bands as follows: secreted zymogen (54 kDa; sequence NH2-Phe26-Arg-Ser-Gln-Asp), thus confirming the predicted signal peptidase cleavage site; partially processed zymogen (52 kDa; NH2-Gly67-Thr-Gly-Ala-Thr); and fully processed catalytic domain (29 kDa; NH2-Ser234-Val-Ser-Arg-Glu), respectively (Fig. 6A). Incubation of cells with the lipid-permeable furin inhibitor dec-RVKR-cmk showed that formation of the 29-kDa form was suppressed when cells were incubated in the presence of 10100 µM inhibitor, but the levels of the larger forms or of the 37-kDa intermediate were affected only at correspondingly higher concentrations.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The primary structure of ADAMTS10 predicts many of the typical features of ADAMTS proteases. Like the majority of them, it is a secreted glycoprotein. The experimental data indicate that it is synthesized as a zymogen that is processed by proprotein convertases in the secretory pathway. However, the maturation process appears to be inefficient, since unprocessed zymogen is also secreted. In this respect, ADAMTS10 differs from other ADAMTS proteases. In HEK293F cells, both the ADAMTS10 zymogen and fully processed form are secreted from the cell, whereas ADAMTS9-transfected cells produce only the fully processed form (20). In ADAMTS7, where we previously described stepwise zymogen processing, some of the final processing to mature enzyme occurred at the cell surface and was substantially inhibited by 10 µM dec-RVKR-cmk with complete inhibition achieved by 25 µM (22). On the other hand, the final processing step in ADAMTS10 requires 100 µM dec-RVKR-cmk for nearly complete inhibition. This suggests that this lipid-permeable inhibitor needs to penetrate into intracellular compartments to affect the final ADAMTS10 processing step. Curiously, the processing site for production of the mature ADAMTS10 enzyme lacks the typical proprotein convertase consensus sequence Arg-Xaa-Arg/Lys-Arg
(35, 36). Sequence comparison of a large number of furin substrates suggests an absolute requirement for the P1 Arg and requires that at least two of the three residues at P2, P4, and P6 must be basic for efficient cleavage (35, 36). The cleaved site in ADAMTS10 does not fulfill the second requirement, although there is a Ser residue at the P1' position in ADAMTS10 that was noted in about 50% of furin substrates (37). Despite these discrepancies, however, both N-terminal sequencing and dec-RVKR-cmk inhibition suggest that the completely processed form is generated by a proprotein convertase, albeit inefficiently. Since ADAMTS10 is widely expressed and furin is the only ubiquitous proprotein convertase (35, 37), it is likely to be the physiological processing enzyme of ADAMTS10. The origin of the 37-kDa intermediate found in purified ADAMTS10-(1463) preparations has not been established; however, its formation appears to be inhibited by dec-RVKR-cmk, suggesting that it may result from processing at another atypical furin cleavage site Val-Tyr-Lys-Arg182
Ser that is conserved in mouse and human ADAMTS10. This putative site lacks both the P4 and P6 Arg residues required for optimal processing, but it has a P1' Ser. The production of unprocessed and partly processed zymogen might imply that the furin cleavage is inefficient because of the suboptimal recognition sequences at two of three processing sites. Partial activation could be an important physiological mechanism by which this highly expressed protease is regulated post-translationally.
Previous studies have demonstrated localization of ADAMTS1, ADAMTS4, ADAMTS7, and ADAMTS9 to the cell surface (20, 22, 3840). The putative GAG-binding sequences in ADAMTS10 might mediate such localization, and as previously shown for ADAMTS1, ADAMTS4, and ADAMTS7, the cell surface may be a staging area for further proteolytic activation steps (22, 38, 39). ADAMTS10 in serum-free medium undergoes substantial proteolysis. Western blotting using monoclonal antibody 9E10 to the C-terminal myc epitope identified several myc-reactive fragments representing C-terminal processing events analogous to those reported for ADAMTS1 and ADAMTS4. The removal of C-terminal modules in these proteases has been shown to have a profound effect on enzyme activity and specificity (19, 38, 40). Once specific ADAMTS10 substrates are identified, the regulatory role of C-terminal proteolysis can be studied in greater detail. The inhibition of proteolysis in the presence of serum, perhaps by broad spectrum protease inhibitors such as
2-M suggests that the responsible enzymes originate in the 293 cells and that this processing of ADAMTS10 occurs extracellularly.
Few ADAMTS proteases other than ADAMTS9 have been shown to have such a broad expression profile, since constitutively active proteases such as the ADAMTS are likely to be highly regulated at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. An emerging theme in the ADAMTS family is that enzymes of a given subfamily appear to have very different expression patterns and levels and that biological roles for each enzyme may be determined by its nonredundant sites of expression. As a case in point, ADAMTS9 is widely expressed, but its homolog, ADAMTS20, is only sparingly expressed. Similarly, ADAMTS6 appears to be expressed primarily in the placenta (24), but ADAMTS10 is very widely expressed. Interestingly, the highest embryonic expression of ADAMTS10 is in the developing lung and among human tumor cell lines examined, in a lung carcinoma cell line. Since antibodies to ADAMTS10 are not presently available, it is not known whether all of the expressed ADAMTS10 RNA is translated into protein. Although ADAMTS10 may have a broad participation in mesenchymal and basement membrane remodeling in a variety of morphogenic processes, this does not imply that it has an essential role at all expression sites. Indeed, some widely expressed proteases have seemingly few nonredundant roles during development. The determination of specific developmental roles in genetic models as well as screens for substrates will provide more insight to follow on this initial characterization of ADAMTS10.
Note Added in ProofA recent article described ADAMTS10 mutations in Weill-Marchesani syndrome (Dagoneau et al. (2004) Am. J. Hum. Genet. 75, 801806).
| FOOTNOTES |
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* This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant AR 49930 (to S. A.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. ![]()
To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation (ND20), 9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44195. Tel.: 216-445-3278; Fax: 216-444-9198; E-mail: aptes{at}ccf.org.
1 The abbreviations used are: ECM, extracellular matrix;
2-M,
2-macroglobulin; ORF, open reading frame; IMAGE, Integrated Mapping of Genomes and their Expression; BLAST, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; aa, amino acid(s); TSR, thrombospondin type 1 repeat; EST, expressed sequence tag; dec, decanoyl; cmk, chloromethylketone; PNGase F, peptide:N-glycanase F. ![]()
2 Gene nomenclature has been assigned in agreement with the Human Gene Nomenclature Committee. ADAMTS10 and Adamts10 are human and mouse orthologs. The protein products of both genes are designated as ADAMTS10. Similar nomenclature is used for other ADAMTS genes and their products. ![]()
3 M. F. Seldin, K. Peterson, G. Wistow, and S. S. Apte, unpublished data. ![]()
4 S. A. Oblander and S. S. Apte, unpublished data. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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