Abstract

The cleavage of bovine collagen I by neutrophil collagenase MMP-8 has been followed at pH 7.4, 37 degrees C. The behavior of the whole enzyme molecule (whMMP-8), displaying both the catalytic domain and the hemopexin-like domain, has been compared under the same experimental conditions with that of the catalytic domain only. The main observation is that whMMP-8 cleaves bovine collagen I only at a single specific site, as already reported by many others (Mallya, S. K., Mookhtiar, K. A., Gao, Y., Brew, K., Dioszegi, M., Birkedal-Hansen, H., and van Wart, H. E. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 10628-10634; Knäuper, V., Osthues, A., DeClerk, Y. A., Langley, K. A., Bläser, J., and Tschesche, H. (1993) Biochem. J. 291, 847-854; Marini, S., Fasciglione, G. F., De Sanctis, G., D'Alessio, S., Politi, V., and Coletta, M. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 18657-18663), whereas the catalytic domain lacks this specificity and cleaves the collagen molecule at multiple sites. Furthermore, a meaningful difference is observed for the cleavage features displayed by two forms of the catalytic domain, which differ for the N terminus resulting from the activation process (i.e. the former Met(80) of the proenzyme (MetMMP-8) and the former Phe(79) of the proenzyme (PheMMP-8)). Thus, the PheMMP-8 species is characterized by a much faster k(cat)/K(m), fully attributable to a lower K(m), suggesting that the conformation of the catalytic domain, induced by the insertion of this N-terminal residue in a specific pocket (Reinemer, P., Grams, F., Huber, R., Kleine, T., Schnierer, S., Piper, M., Tschesche, H., and Bode, W. (1994) FEBS Lett. 338, 227-233), brings about a better, although less discriminatory, recognition process of cleavage site(s) on bovine collagen I.

Highlights

  • Collagen I is one of the major components of the extracellular matrix for most tissues, such as skin, tendon, blood vessels, cartilage, bones, and basal laminae [20]

  • Several studies have shown that, the actual enzymatic action of collagenases occurs in the catalytic domain, the hemopexin-like domain plays an important role, because its neutrophil collagenase; whole neutrophil collagenase MMP-8 (whMMP-8), whole MMP-8 molecule; MetMMP-8, catalytic domain of MMP-8, where the N terminus is Met80 of the former proenzyme; PheMMP-8, catalytic domain of MMP-8, where the N terminus is Phe79 of the former proenzyme

  • It appears immediately obvious that whereas whMMP-8 cleaves the bovine collagen only at one site, showing only two fragments after 3 and 6 h, as already reported by us [22], both MetMMP-8 and PheMMP-8 show multiple cleavage sites, with several bands of differing molecular weight. This observation clearly indicates that the removal of the hemopexin-like domain in MMP-8 brings about a loss of specificity in recognizing the cleavage site on bovine collagen between Gly775 and the residue in position 776, which is instead peculiar to the enzymatic action of whMMP-8 [4]

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Summary

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Isolation of whMMP-8 and expression, purification, and refolding of recombinant MetMMP-8 and PheMMP-8 were carried out as previously reported [6]. Isolated purified whMMP-8 proenzyme was activated by incubating 0.1 ml of a 0.1 ␮g/ml procollagenase solution with p-aminophenyl mercuric acetate (Sigma) at 37 °C for 2 h. The purity of whMMP-8, MetMMP-8 and PheMMP-8 was checked by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis according to Laemmli [30]. Zymography was performed as follows: 2 ␮l of purified MMP-8 was mixed with a 5-fold excess of sample buffer (0.25 M Tris, 0.8% SDS, 10% glycerol, and 0.05% bromphenol blue) and run on 12% SDS-polyacrylamide gels containing either 1 mg/ml gelatin or bovine collagen I as described previously [30]. Lane 1, intact bovine collagen I; lane M, molecular weight markers; lanes 2–7, SDS-polyacrylamide gel of samples after 1.5 (lanes 2– 4) and 6 h (lanes 5–7) of digestion at 37 °C. Electrophoretic spots, corresponding to different fragmentation intermediates of bovine collagen I, were analyzed as a function of time by laser densitometry (LKB 2202 UltraScan), and their intensity was calibrated (in order to obtain concentration values) using standard collagen solutions

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
SCHEME II
TABLE II

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