Phospholipase A1 activity of guinea pig pancreatic lipase

Forty five years with membrane phospholipids, phospholipases and lipid mediators: A historical perspective

Phospholipases play a key role in the metabolism of phospholipids and in cell signaling. They are also a very useful tool to explore phospholipid structure and metabolism as well as membrane organization. They are at the center of this review, covering a period starting in 1971 and focused on a number of subjects in which my colleagues and I have been involved. Those include determination of phospholipid asymmetry in the blood platelet membrane, biosynthesis of lysophosphatidic acid, biochemistry of platelet-activating factor, first attempts to define the role of phosphoinositides in cell signaling, and identification of novel digestive (phospho)lipases such as pancreatic lipase-related protein 2 (PLRP2) or phospholipase B. Besides recalling some of our contributions to those various fields, this review makes an appraisal of the impressive and often unexpected evolution of those various aspects of membrane phospholipids and lipid mediators. It is also the occasion to propose some new working hypotheses.

A novel phosphatidic acid-selective phospholipase A1 that produces lysophosphatidic acid

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid mediator with diverse biological properties, although its synthetic pathways have not been completely solved. We report the cloning and characterization of a novel phosphatidic acid (PA)-selective phospholipase A(1) (PLA(1)) that produces 2-acyl-LPA. The PLA(1) was identified in the GenBank(TM) data base as a close homologue of phosphatidylserine (PS)-specific PLA(1) (PS-PLA(1)). When expressed in insect Sf9 cells, this enzyme was recovered from the Triton X-100-insoluble fraction and did not show any catalytic activity toward exogenously added phospholipid substrates. However, culture medium obtained from Sf9 cells expressing the enzyme was found to activate EDG7/LPA(3), a cellular receptor for 2-acyl-LPA. The activation of EDG7 was further enhanced when the cells were treated with phorbol ester or a bacterial phospholipase D, suggesting involvement of phospholipase D in the process. In the latter condition, an increased level of LPA, but not other lysophospholipids, was confirmed by mass spectrometry analyses. Expression of the enzyme is observed in several human tissues such as prostate, testis, ovary, pancreas, and especially platelets. These data show that the enzyme is a membrane-associated PA-selective PLA(1) and suggest that it has a role in LPA production.

An alternative splicing form of phosphatidylserine-specific phospholipase A1 that exhibits lysophosphatidylserine-specific lysophospholipase activity in humans

Phosphatidylserine-specific phospholipase A1 (PS-PLA1), which acts specifically on phosphatidylserine (PS) and 1-acyl-2-lysophosphatidylserine (lyso-PS) to hydrolyze fatty acids at the sn-1 position of these phospholipids, was first identified in rat platelets (Sato, T., Aoki, J., Nagai, Y., Dohmae, N., Takio, K., Doi, T., Arai, H., and Inoue, K. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 2192-2198). In this study we isolated and sequenced cDNA clones encoding human PS-PLA1, which showed 80% homology with rat PS-PLA1 at the amino acid level. In addition to an mRNA encoding a 456-amino acid product (PS-PLA1), an mRNA with four extra bases inserted at the boundary of the exon-intron junction was detected in human tissues and various human cell lines. This mRNA is most probably produced via an alternative use of the 5'-splicing site (two consensus sequences for RNA splicing occur at the boundary of the exon-intron junction) and encodes a 376-amino acid product (PS-PLA1DeltaC) that lacks two-thirds of the C-terminal domain of PS-PLA1. Unlike PS-PLA1, PS-PLA1DeltaC hydrolyzed exclusively lyso-PS but not PS appreciably. Any other phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidic acid (PA), and their lyso derivatives were not hydrolyzed at all. These data demonstrated that PS-PLA1DeltaC exhibits lyso-PS-specific lysophospholipase activity and that the C-terminal domain of PS-PLA1 is responsible for recognizing diacylphospholipids. In addition, human PS-PLA1 gene was mapped to chromosome 3q13.13-13.2 and was unexpectedly identical to the nmd gene, which is highly expressed in nonmetastatic melanoma cell lines but poorly expressed in metastatic cell lines (van Groningen, J. J., Bloemers, H. P., and Swart, G. W. (1995) Cancer Res. 55, 6237-6243).

Alkaline lipase from brain: is it the same enzyme as pancreatic lipase from pancreas?

A new alkaline lipase was detected in rat brain and its properties were compared with those of the well-characterized pancreatic lipase and pancreatic lipase-related protein 2. The activity of the alkaline lipase was determined using trioleoylglycerol emulsion at pH 8.0. Subcellular fractions were prepared from brain homogenates by differential centrifugation. Lipase activities of the cytosolic fraction (the supernatant obtained by differential centrifugation of 100,000g) were stimulated by addition of colipase and bile salts and inhibited by addition of an antibody against rat pancreatic lipase. The partially purified enzyme had an isoelectric point of pH 6.8, which was identical to that found for rat pancreatic lipase. The enzyme had interfacial activation and dependence on colipase in the presence of bile salts. The enzyme had no measurable phospholipase A activity. The band produced by the enzyme on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was identical to that of the rat pancreatic lipase when detected by immunoblotting analysis using an antibody against pancreatic lipase. These results show that pancreatic lipase such as alkaline lipase is in rat brain.

Purification and characterization of guinea pig gastric phospholipase A2 of the pancreatic type

Guinea pig gastric mucosa and juice contained exceptionally high phospholipase-A2 activity, whereas the activity in the pancreas was only minimal. Phospholipases A2 were purified to homogeneity from these three tissues. Structural evidence, including the sequence of the NH2-terminal 41 residues, the amino-acid composition and the molecular mass (13902 +/- 3 Da) determined accurately by mass spectrometry, showed that the gastric mucosa enzyme belongs to the pancreatic type. An unique feature of the sequence is the substitution of Phe for the hitherto invariant Tyr28 in the calcium-binding loop of pancreatic phospholipases A2. The affinity of the guinea pig enzyme for Ca2+ in the presence of substrate was, however, identical to that of the rat enzyme with Tyr28, suggesting the interaction of a phenolic hydroxyl group of the Tyr with its neighboring residues is not significantly linked to the binding of Ca2+. The NH2-terminal sequences and immunochemical properties of the enzymes purified from the gastric juice and pancreas were identical to those of the gastric mucosa enzyme. The distribution of cells immunoreactive with anti-(gastric PLA2) immunoglobulin in the stomach was quite similar to that of the chief cells. Unlike in pancreas of other animals, the prophospholipase A2 was not detectable in gastric mucosa or juice homogenates treated with diisopropyl fluorophosphate or in column effluents during purification under acidic conditions. An appreciable prophospholipase-A2-activating activity was not detectable in gastric mucosa extracts at low pH relevant to gastric juice, using rat prophospholipase A2 as substrate. This opposes the activation of secreted proenzyme in the gastric juice.