ISSN:
0730-2312
Keywords:
assembly of type I collagen
;
COOH-terminal propeptide
;
pepsin-resistant heterotrimers
;
interspecies collagen molecule
;
thermal stability
;
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
Notes:
Procollagen (Type I) contains a noncollagenous COOH-terminal propeptide (C-propeptide) hypothesized to be important in directing chain association and alignment during assembly. We previously expressed human pro-α2(I) cDNA in rat liver epithelial cells, W8, that produce only pro-α1(I) trimer collagen (Lim et al. [1994] MatrixBiol. 14: 21-30). In the resulting cell lines, α2(I) assembled with α1(I) forming heterotrimers. Using this cell system, we investigated the importance of the COOH-terminal propeptide sequence of the pro-α2(I) chain for normal assembly of type I collagen. Full-length human pro-α2(I) cDNA was cloned into expression vectors with a premature stop signal eliminating the final 10 amino acids. No triple-helical molecules containing α2(I) were detected in transfected W8 cells, although pro-α2(I) mRNA was detected. Additional protein analysis demonstrated that these cells synthesize small amounts of truncated pro-α2(I) chains detected by immunoprecipitation with a pro-α2(I) antibody. In addition, since the human-rat collagen was less thermostable than normal intraspecies collagen, wild-type and C-terminal truncated mouse cDNAs were expressed in mouse D2 cells, which produced only type I trimers. Results from both systems were consistent, suggesting that the last 10 amino acid residues of the pro-α2(I) chain are important for formation of stable type I collagen. J. Cell. Biochem. 71:216-232, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Additional Material:
7 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
