Release of cell surface proteoglycans from differentiating colon cells proceeds by cleavage of lipophilic anchor peptides

Expression of proteoglycans by cultured chick sternal chondrocytes

Chondrocytes isolated from the caudal and cephalic ends of the sterna of embryonic chicks were cultured in collagen gels. Differences were found, histochemically, between the proteoglycans produced by the "caudal" and "cephalic" cultures and with length of time in culture. The cultures were labelled with [14C]galactose and [35S]sulphate at 7 and 21 days in culture and labelled compounds from media, and cell and matrix extracts analysed with Sepharose CL-2B. A large aggrecan-like proteoglycan was detected in the media with some aggregated proteoglycans found in the cell extracts even under the dissociating conditions used. One group of 14C-labelled compounds, found in the cell and matrix extracts, was equivalent in size to chick aggrecan core protein. Smaller proteoglycans and glycoprotein glycans were present. The types and proportions of these proteoglycans varied between the two cell types demonstrating biosynthetic commitment.

Distinct isoforms of chicken decorin contain either one or two dermatan sulfate chains

Decorin, a member of a family of proteins with leucine-rich repeat motifs, is a widely distributed extracellular matrix proteoglycan that is thought to be responsible for the structure, tissue organization, and surface properties of fibrils. In mammals, decorin carries one chondroitin/dermatan sulfate chain as a distinction from its homologue, biglycan, which contains two glycosaminoglycan chains. With the aim to study decorin-collagen interactions in chicken, where the fibrillar organization of cartilage collagens is best understood, we have isolated decorin-related proteoglycans from sternal cartilage of 40-day-old broiler chickens. Small chondroitin/dermatan sulfate proteoglycans were resolved by hydrophobic interaction chromatography into two fractions, DCN I and DCN II. Both forms contained dermatan sulfate and, in addition, keratan sulfate chains. Tryptic fingerprinting revealed that the core proteins of DCN I and DCN II were identical. The protein was identified as decorin by amino-terminal sequencing. DCN II was found to contain two dermatan sulfate chains, whereas DCN I had a single dermatan sulfate chain. The dermatan sulfate attachment sites are located near the NH2 terminus of the core protein, i.e. at Ser-4 and Ser-16 in DCN II and at Ser-4 in DCN I. The keratan sulfate attachment sites are located in the central portion of the core protein, at Asn-179 and Asn-230. The presence of two dermatan sulfate chains renders the chicken proteoglycan DCN II structurally similar to mammalian biglycan. Interestingly, biglycan has not been detected in chicken. Therefore, in birds, DCN II may function as a biglycan substitute.

Pervanadate activation of intracellular kinases leads to tyrosine phosphorylation and shedding of syndecan-1

Syndecan-1 is a transmembrane haparan sulphate proteoglycan that binds extracellular matrices and growth factors, making it a candidate to act between these regulatory molecules and intracellular signalling pathways. It has a highly conserved transmembrane/cytoplasmic domain that contains four conserved tyrosines. One of these is in a consensus sequence for tyrosine kinase phosphorylation. As an initial step to investigating whether or not phosphorylation of these tyrosines is part of a signal-transduction pathway, we have monitored the tyrosine phosphorylation of syndecan-1 by cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases in intact cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation of syndecan-1 is observed when NMuMG cells are treated with sodium orthovanadate or pervanadate, which have been shown to activate intracellular tyrosine kinases. Initial studies with sodium orthovanadate demonstrate a slow accumulation of phosphotyrosine on syndecan-1 over the course of several hours. Pervanadate, a more effective inhibitor of phosphatases, allows detection of phosphotyrosine on syndecan-1 within 5 min, with peak phosphorylation seen by 15 min. Concurrently, in a second process activated by pervanadate, syndecan-1 ectodomain is cleaved and released into the culture medium. Two phosphorylated fragments of syndecan-1 of apparent sizes 6 and 8 kDa remain with the cell after shedding of the ectodomain. The 8 kDa size class appears to be a highly phosphorylated form of the 6 kDa product, as it disappears if samples are dephosphorylated. These fragments contain the C-terminus of syndecan-1 and also retain at least a portion of the transmembrane domain, suggesting that they are produced by a cell surface cleavage event. Thus pervanadate treatment of cells results in two effects of syndecan-1: (i) phosphorylation of one or more of its tyrosines via the action of a cytoplasmic kinase(s) and (ii) cleavage and release of the ectodomain into the medium, producing a C-terminal fragment containing the transmembrane/cytoplasmic domain.

Preferential requirement for protein tyrosine phosphatase activity in the 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced differentiation of human colon cancer cells

Some lines of colon cancer cells are forced to undergo differentiation by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). The increases in activities of both protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) and protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) have been reported to be associated with the TPA-induced differentiation of HL-60 leukemia cells. In the present study, a 2-fold increase in PTP activity was observed in SW620 human colon cancer cells after 30 min of TPA treatment; a maximal level (4- to 5-fold) was reached at 60 min and continued for more than 6 hr. In addition, two TPA-induced differentiated characteristics, morphological alteration and release of cellular surface proteoglycan, were effectively blocked by PTP inhibitors, such as sodium orthovanadate (50 microM), zinc chloride (100 microM), and iodoacetate (250 microM), but not by the protein serine/threonine phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid (20 nM). On the other hand, although TPA induced a transient slight increase in PTK activity (1.4-fold) at 60 min, four PTK inhibitors (genistein, herbimycin A, tyrphostin-23 and quercetin) had different effects on the TPA-induced release of cell surface proteoglycan. Genistein (60 microM) potentiated this process, but in contrast, quercetin (45 microM) could partially inhibit the TPA effect. Taken together, these observations suggest that both PTP and PTK activities were increased in SW620 cells in response to TPA; however, the activation of PTP seems to be preferentially required for the TPA-induced differentiation of SW620 human colon cancer cells.