Human Milk Bile Salt-activated Lipase Research Articles

Isolation and Characterization of Human Milk Bile Salt-Activated Lipase C-Tail Fragment

Glycosylation positions and oligosaccharide characteristics in the proline-rich, mucin-like, C-terminal region (C-tail) of human milk bile salt-activated lipase (BAL) were studied in order to assess the possible physiological functions of this region. A large-scale purification method has been devised to purify the C-tail fragment from human milk BAL. Chymotryptic, tryptic, and cyanogen bromide cleavages of partially purified BAL and subsequent molecular sieve chromatography yielded 20-30 mg of C-tail fragment from 1 L of human milk. The N-terminal sequence and amino acid composition of the purified C-tail fragment establish that it is derived from residues 528-712 of the enzyme. The O-glycosylated carbohydrates of the C-tail fragment contain fucose, galactose, glucosamine, galactosamine, and neuraminic acid in a molar ratio of 1:3:2:1:0.3, respectively. beta-Elimination reaction revealed that nine threonine residues and less than one serine residue were glycosylated. Edman degradation of C-tail fragment and its pronase subfragment suggest a number of glycosylation sites which are flanked by a consensus motif of PVPP. We suggest that this motif may serve as a signal for O-glycosylation in the C-tail region of BAL. Immunochemical studies indicated that the oligosaccharide chains in the C-tail region of BAL contain Lewis x and Lewis a antigens and, less prominently, sialyl Lewis x and sialyl Lewis a antigens. C-tail fragment was also found to bind jacalin lectin. These observations suggest the possibility that the C-tail region may contribute to adhesive activity in the physiological function of BAL.

Proline-rich domain and glycosylation are not essential for the enzymic activity of bile salt-activated lipase. Kinetic studies of T-BAL, a truncated form of the enzyme, expressed in Escherichia coli.

We have expressed and purified a truncated recombinant human milk bile salt-activated lipase (T-BAL) from the T7 expression system in Escherichia coli. This T-BAL contains the N-terminal 538 residues of the 722-residue native enzyme. The purified T-BAL, when assayed with PANA (p-nitrophenyl acetate), had a specific activity of 64 +/- 2 units/mg (n = 4), as compared to 52 units/mg for the native enzyme. Because the recombinant T-BAL expressed in E. coli is not glycosylated, these results indicated that the highly glycosylated C-terminal region of BAL is not essential for catalytic function. Heat inactivation patterns of native BAL and T-BAL were found to be similar, further suggesting that the folding of T-BAL is similar to that of the catalytic domain of the native enzyme. With the availability of a sufficient amount of recombinant T-BAL, the specificity and kinetics of T-BAL and native BAL were compared. Fluorescence studies of T-BAL indicated that it has a slightly higher affinity for the monomeric form of taurocholate with a dissociation constant (KA) of 0.32 mM, compared with the reported 0.37 mM for the native enzyme. Further kinetic analysis indicated that there are enzyme specificity changes revealed with the use of PANA and PANB (p-nitrophenyl butyrate) as substrates. When assayed in the presence of taurocholate, T-BAL has a higher turnover rate constant with p-nitrophenyl acetate than with p-nitrophenyl butyrate, which was found to be in contrast to native BAL.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Purification of carboxyl ester lipase from human pancreas and the amino acid sequence of the n-terminal region

A procedure for the purification of carboxyl ester lipase from human pancreas has been developed. The determined N-terminal 10 amino acid residues of the purified enzyme, NH2-Ala-Lys-Leu-Gly-Ala-Val-Tyr-Thr-Glu-Gly, was identical to the terminal of human milk bile salt-activated lipase. The human pancreatic carboxyl ester lipase has an apparent molecular weight slightly smaller than that of human milk bile salt-activated lipase (105,000 vs 125,000) as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Thus, it is possible that the human pancreatic carboxyl ester lipase and human milk bile salt-activated lipase could be produced by the same gene by a different splice or post-translational modification. Alternatively, they could simply be the products of two closely related but separate genes.

Fluorescence properties and conformation of human milk bile salt-activated lipase

The fluorescence properties of human milk bile salt-activated lipase (BAL) in aqueous solution at various pH and in the presence of denaturing reagents and bile salts have been studied by measuring the accessibility of tryptophan side chains to the iodide ion. The fluoresence quenching studies of BAL demonstrated that the BAL conformation was pH sensitive. At pH 7.5, in the presence of denaturing reagents, all of the BAL tryptophan became accessible to iodide, suggesting the presence of random conformation in this medium. The decrease in tryptophan accessibility to iodide with various bile salt activators was found to correlate with the corresponding activity of BAL with long chain triacylglycerol substrate.

Kinetic properties of human milk bile salt-activated lipase: studies using long chain triacylglycerol as substrate.

Studies on the hydrodynamic properties of human milk bile salt-activated lipase (BAL) indicated that it is a monomer with molecular weight of 107,000. The presence of taurocholate (1 mM) did not lead to an association of the enzyme. The enzyme had a basal activity with trioctanoylglycerol and with shorter chain, but not with longer chain, monoacid triacylglycerols. Based on kinetic analyses, we suggest that the BAL-catalyzed lipolysis of long-chain triacylglycerol can be described to follow a compulsory sequential mechanism. The initial interaction of BAL with the activator (taurocholate) leads to a conformational change of the enzyme which facilitates the further interaction with the long chain triacylglycerol substrate in forming the enzyme-bile salt-substrate ternary complex. We also suggest that the binding of BAL with substrate involves direct interaction of the active site with the fatty acyl-chain of the triacylglycerol rather than with nonspecific hydrophobic interactions at the emulsion interface.

Kinetic properties of human pancreatic carboxylesterase

Fractionation of pancreatic juice by heparin-Sepharose and cholate-Sepharose affinity chromatography indicated that pancreatic carboxylesterase can be separated from pancreatic lipase with the former retained and the latter unretained by both columns. The chromatographic behavior of pancreatic carboxylesterase was found to be similar to that of human milk bile salt-activated lipase. The partially purified pancreatic carboxylesterase had a specific activity of 30 μmol/min per mg protein when assayed with p-nitrophenyl acetate. The reaction mechanism of human pancreatic carboxylesterase was studied using p-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate and taurocholate as activator. The reaction of the enzyme was found to follow a rapid-equilibrium random mechanism. Because of the presence of basal activity, the role of taurocholate can be considered as a non-essential activator and the dissociation constant for the enzyme-taurocholate binary complex was determined to be 0.20 mM. The activation effect of taurocholate consists in increasing the affinity of the enzyme to the substrate (5.6-fold) and in increasing the V max (2.3-fold). Based on the kinetic property of human pancreatic carboxylesterase and human milk bile salt-activated lipase with p-nitrophenyl acetate, cholesterol oleate and triolein as substrate, we conclude that they share common substrate specificity but show minor differences in kinetic parameters. Fluorescence studies indicated that both enzymes showed a decreased intrinsic tryptophanyl fluorescence upon incubation with taurocholate. This indicates that bile salt caused a conformational change of the enzymes, with a resultant decreased hydrophobicity in the microenvironment of tryptophan residues.

Purification of human milk bile salt-activated lipase

A modified procedure for a large-scale purification of human milk bile salt-activated lipase (BAL) has been devised. An initial step used cholate-Sepharose affinity chromatography for the partial purification of the enzyme followed by the removal of cholate with a Bio-Rex 5 anionexchange resin. The final step of purification used heparin-Sepharose affinity chromatography. This procedure of purification resulted in a 50-fold purification of BAL from human skim milk and a specific activity of 50–60μmol/min/mg with p-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate. From 450 ml of human skim milk, approximately 30 mg of purified enzyme could be obtained. The N-terminal-region amino acid sequence of the purified BAL was determined as follows: Ala-Lys-Leu-Gly-Ala-Val-Tyr-Thr-Glu-Gly-Lys-Phe-Val-Glu-Gly-Val-Asn-Lys-Lys-Leu-Gly-Leu-. Despite the finding that BAL interacts with heparin-Sepharose, soluble heparin had no effect on BAL activity. The possible physiological role of BAL-heparin interaction has also been discussed.

Studies on the substrate specificity of purified human milk bile salt-activated lipase.

The fatty acid specificity of the bile salt-activated lipase purified from human milk was studied using C12 to C54 (total acyl carbon) saturated and the C54 unsaturated triacylglycerols. Kinetic studies indicated that the short chain triacylglycerols were hydrolyzed more readily than the long chain triacylglycerols, and that the long chain unsaturated triacylglycerols were attacked more readily than the long chain saturated triacylglycerols. This fatty acid specificity was also apparent intramolecularly, both short chain and unsaturated fatty acids being released at higher rates than the saturated long chain acids. The enzyme possessed neither positional specificity nor stereospecificity as indicated by the nearly simultaneous appearance of the sn-1,2-, sn-2,3-, and sn-1,3-dioleoylglycerols from trioleoylglycerol. The hydrolyses of these three ester bonds were approximately at their anticipated chemical reactivities. Synthetic rac-1-monooleoylglycerols were hydrolyzed about 2 times faster than the sn-2-monooleoylglycerols. It is concluded that the bile salt-activated lipase may possess a special potential for a rapid release of short chain and polyunsaturated fatty acids from dietary triacylglycerols in the intestinal lumen of infants.

Human milk bile salt-activated lipase. Further characterization and kinetic studies.

Further studies on human milk bile salt-activated lipase were performed to provide kinetic and additional chemical characterizations of this enzyme. The enzyme was homogeneous by urea-sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing with an isoelectric point of 3.7. A unique feature of the amino acid composition of this enzyme was a high proline content (13 mol %). Results of carbohydrate analyses indicated that the enzyme was a glycoprotein containing fucose, galactose, glucosamine, galactosamine, and sialic acid. Kinetic studies were performed with various water-soluble esters (p-nitrophenyl acetate, 1-monoacetin, 1-monobutyrin, and 1-monocaprylin) as substrate and taurocholate as activator. In the presence of a saturating level of taurocholate, the enzyme reaction was demonstrated to follow a rapid equilibrium random uni bi mechanism. Also, these kinetic studies indicated the formation of an enzyme-activator-substrate ternary complex through a random pathway. The mechanism of the activation by taurocholate was due to its enhancement of the binding of the enzyme to the substrate (6.2-fold) and its enhancement of the rate of conversion from enzyme-substrate transitory complex to the products (1.57-fold) when examined with p-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate.

Purification of human milk bile salt-activated lipase by cholic acid-coupled sepharose 4B affinity chromatography

Sequential chromatography of human milk whey on concanavalin A—Sepharose 4B followed by cholate—Sepharose 4B yielded a bile salt-activated lipase with 150-fold purification. The lipase was not retained by concanavalin A—Sepharose 4B but was retained by the cholate—Sepharose 4B, from which it was eluted with 2% sodium cholate. The affinity chromatography procedure on cholate—Sepharose 4B was based on the specific structural requirement of the enzyme for a 7-hydroxyl group of bile salt. Sodium deoxycholate, which lacks the 7-hydroxyl group, was effective in removing the nonspecifically bound proteins without affecting the binding of the enzyme. Bile salt-activated lipase showed a single band on urea-sodium dodecyl sulfate—polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with an apparent molecular weight of 125,000, and based on densitometric measurement accounted for 0.5–1.0% of the protein mass of human whole milk. A rabbit antiserum to the purified bile salt-activated lipase caused no inhibition of human milk lipoprotein lipase activity but completely inhibited bile salt-activated lipase activity.