Caldesmon-induced polymerization of actin from profilactin

A new enzymic method for the isolation and culture of human bladder body smooth muscle cells

Cultured cells of the human urinary bladder smooth muscle are useful for investigating bladder function, but methods for culturing them are not well developed. We have now established a novel enzymic technique. The smooth muscle layer was separated out and incubated with 0.2% trypsin for 30 min at 37 degrees C. The samples were then minced and incubated with 0.1% collagenase for 30 min and centrifuged at 900 g. The pellets were resuspended in RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) and centrifuged at 250 g. The smooth muscle cells from the supernatant were cultured in RPMI-1640 containing 10% FCS. The cells grew to confluence after 7-10 days, forming the "hills and valleys" growth pattern characteristic of smooth muscle cells. Immunostaining with anti-alpha-actin, anti-myosin, and anti-caldesmon antibodies demonstrated that 99% of the cells were smooth muscle cells. To investigate the pharmacological properties of the cultured cells, we determined the inhibitory effect of muscarinic receptor antagonists on the binding of [3H]N-methylscopolamine to membranes from cultured cells. The pKi values obtained for six antagonists agreed with the corresponding values for transfected cells expressing the human muscarinic M2 subtype. Furthermore, carbachol produced an increase in the concentration of cytoplasmic free Ca2+ an action that was blocked by 4-diphenylacetoxy-N-methylpiperidine methiodide, an M3 selective antagonist. This result suggests that these cells express functional M3 muscarinic receptors, in addition to M2 receptors. The subcultured cells therefore appear to be unaffected by our new isolation method.

Fesselin, a synaptopodin-like protein, stimulates actin nucleation and polymerization

Fesselin is a proline-rich actin binding protein that has recently been isolated from smooth muscle [Leinweber, B. D., Fredricksen, R. S., Hoffman, D. R., and Chalovich, J. M. (1999) J. Muscle Res. Cell Motil. 20, 539-545]. Fesselin is similar to synaptopodin [Mundel, P., Heid, H. W., Mundel, T. M., Krüger, M., Reiser, J., and Kriz, W. (1997) J. Cell Biol. 139, 193-204] in terms of its size, isoelectric point, and sequence although synaptopodin is not present in smooth muscle. The function of fesselin is unknown. Evidence is presented here that fesselin accelerates the polymerization of actin. Fesselin was effective on actin isolated from either smooth or skeletal muscle at low ionic strength and in the presence of 100 mM KCl. At low ionic strength, fesselin decreased the time for 50% polymerization to about 1% of that in the absence of fesselin. The lag phase characteristic of the slow nucleation process of polymerization was eliminated as the fesselin concentration was increased from very low levels. Fesselin did not alter the critical concentration for actin but did increase the rate of elongation by approximately 3-fold. The increase in elongation rate constant is insufficient to account for the total increase in polymerization rate. It is likely that fesselin stabilizes the formation of actin nuclei. Time courses of actin polymerization at varied fesselin concentrations and varied actin concentrations were simulated by increasing the rate of nucleation and both the forward and reverse rate constants for elongation.

Comparison of the caldesmon content of cardiac and smooth muscle

The high abundance of caldesmon in smooth muscle and its ability to inhibit actomyosin ATPase activity have led to the hypothesis that caldesmon modulates contractile activity. It has also been proposed, however, that caldesmon acts as a structural protein in muscle and non-muscle cells. We have determined the caldesmon content of mammalian cardiac muscle and have found that caldesmon is 200-fold less abundant in cardiac muscle than it is in gizzard smooth muscle. This finding argues against a role for caldesmon in the modulation of cardiac contractility.

Identification and localization of caldesmon in cardiac muscle

Caldesmon has been detected in smooth muscle and in a number of non-muscle cells. It binds both actin and myosin and may act as a regulator of contraction or a structural element in smooth muscle. The presence of caldesmon in striated muscle has not been well established. To address this issue, polyclonal antibodies and a panel of monoclonal antibodies were raised against chicken gizzard smooth muscle caldesmon and used to demonstrate that caldesmon is present in adult cardiac muscle of a variety of mammalian species. Western-blot analysis revealed the presence of caldesmon in ventricular myocytes isolated from rat heart. The epitopes for the individual monoclonal antibodies were mapped to the caldesmon primary structure using chymotryptic and 2-nitro-5-thiocyanatobenzoic acid fragments. Bovine and rat cardiac caldesmons were recognized only by a subset of these monoclonal antibodies, indicating primary sequence differences from the chicken smooth muscle protein. Immunofluorescence labelling of isolated myocytes from rat, rabbit and guinea pig cardiac muscle revealed a striated pattern of fluorescence labelling. Dual labelling of caldesmon and myosin or caldesmon and alpha-actinin demonstrated that caldesmon was present at the centre of the I-band rather than in the A-band, as might have been expected from the myosin binding properties of the smooth muscle protein. These results suggest a structural role for caldesmon in cardiac muscle cells.

Phosphatidylserine liposomes can be tethered by caldesmon to actin filaments

Rotary shadowing electron microscopy revealed that attachment of caldesmon to phosphatidylserine (PS) liposomes was mainly through its C-terminal end. To determine the PS-binding sites of caldesmon, we have made use of synthetic peptides covering the two C-terminal calmodulin binding sites and a recombinant fragment corresponding to the N-terminal end of the C-terminal domain that contains an amphipathic helix. Interactions of these peptides with the PS liposomes were studied by nondenaturing gel electrophoresis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results showed that both calmodulin-binding sites of caldesmon were able to interact with PS. The affinity (Kd) of PS for these sites was in the range of 1.8-14.3 x 10(-5) M, compared to 0.69 x 10(-5) M for the whole caldesmon molecule. Fragments located outside of calmodulin-binding sites bound PS weakly (3.85 x 10(-4) M) and thus may contain a second class of lipid-binding sites. Binding of PS induced conformational changes in regions other than the C-terminal PS-binding sites, as evidenced by the changes in the susceptibility to proteolytic cleavages. Most significantly, the presence of caldesmon greatly increased binding of PS to F-actin, suggesting that caldesmon may tether PS liposomes to actin filaments. These results raise the possibility that caldesmon-lipid interactions could play a functionally important role in the assembly of contractile filaments near the membranes.

Characterization of the COOH terminus of non-muscle caldesmon mutants lacking mitosis-specific phosphorylation sites

Phosphorylation of rat non-muscle caldesmon by cdc2 kinase causes reduction in most of caldesmon's properties, including caldesmon's binding to actin, myosin, and calmodulin, as well as its inhibition of actomyosin ATPase. We have generated and characterized the COOH terminus of caldesmon mutants lacking mitosis-specific phosphorylation sites, because the COOH-terminal half of caldesmon contains all 7 putative Ser or Thr sites for cdc2 kinase. Codons for the 7 putative Ser or Thr residues have been mutated to Ala, and resultant mutants were bacterially expressed. Analyses of the phosphopeptide maps of these mutants have identified 6 sites, including Ser-249, Ser-462, Thr-468, Ser-491, Ser-497, and Ser-527 as the mitosis-specific phosphorylation sites, whereas the phosphorylation of the remaining site, Thr-377, is not detected by this assay method. Actin binding experiments have suggested that 5 sites including Ser-249, Ser-462, Thr-468, Ser-491, and Ser-497 are important for the phosphorylation-dependent reduction in actin binding. Characterization of a mutant lacking all 7 Ser or Thr sites (7-fold mutant) has revealed that 7-fold mutation eliminates all phosphorylation sites by cdc2 kinase. While the in vitro properties of the 7-fold mutant, including actin, myosin, and calmodulin binding and inhibition of actomyosin ATPase, are very similar to those of nonmutated protein, such properties are not affected by the treatment with cdc2 kinase in contrast to nonmutated protein. This mutant should thus be useful to explore the functions of the mitosis-specific phosphorylation of caldesmon.

Polymerization of actin induced by actin-binding fragments of caldesmon

Our earlier studies revealed that caldesmon causes assembly of G-actin into polymers morphologically indistinguishable from those formed in the presence of salt (Gałazkiewicz, B., Belagyi, J. and Dabrowska, R. (1989) Eur. J. Biochem. 181, 607-614). In this work we have investigated the effect of actin-binding fragments of caldesmon on actin polymerization process followed by measurements of the changes in fluorescence of pyrenyl conjugated with G-actin and ATP hydrolysis. The results indicate that C-terminal 34 kDa fragment of caldesmon containing two actin-binding sites and 19 kDa containing high-affinity binding site have similar capability to polymerize actin to that of intact molecule. Binding of each of these fragments to G-actin causes bypassing of nucleation phase. The 11.5 kDa fragment comprising low affinity actin-binding site has much lower potency to polymerize actin. Conformation of actin monomers in filaments formed upon 19 kDa fragment and that formed upon 11.5 kDa fragment differs. The former fragment seems to resemble more conformation of monomers in filaments formed upon intact caldesmon than the latter one.

Monoclonal antibodies to cytoskeletal proteins: an immunohistochemical investigation of human colon cancer

Monoclonal antibodies raised to a number of microfilament-associated proteins were shown to recognize the appropriate proteins in extracts from human colon tissue. They were then used in an immunohistochemical study of normal colonic mucosa, adenomas, and adenocarcinomas. A strong reaction was seen in stromal cells within the tumours (both adenomas and adenocarcinomas) when frozen sections were stained with antibodies to filamin and caldesmon. In addition, a similar reaction was seen in the adenocarcinomas when stained with antibodies to talin and gelsolin. We believe that immunohistochemical staining with these antibodies reveals a tumour-induced process in the surrounding cells, possibly related to a host response to tumours.

Caldesmon

Recent research has led to an understanding of the in vitro properties of caldesmon, including the regulation of actomyosin ATPase activity, cross-linking between actin and myosin, enhancement of microfilament stability and stimulation of polymerization of actin. While it remains to be established whether caldesmon functions similarly in vivo, recent studies have suggested that smooth muscle caldesmon regulates the inhibition of vascular smooth muscle tone, and that non-muscle caldesmon plays roles in the regulation of cell motility and cytoskeletal organization in three biological activities: granule movement, hormone secretion and reorganization of microfilaments during mitosis.

Involvement of caldesmon at the actin-myosin interface

Addition of myosin subfragment 1 (S-1) to the actin-caldesmon binary complex, which forms bundles of actin filaments resulted in the formation of actin/caldesmon-decorated filaments [Harricane, Bonet-Kerrache, Cavadore & Mornet (1991) Eur. J. Biochem. 196, 219-224]. The present data provide further evidence that caldesmon and S-1 compete for a common actin-binding region and demonstrate that a change occurs in the actin-myosin interface induced by caldesmon. S-1 digested by trypsin, which has an actin affinity 100-fold weaker than that of native S-1, was efficiently removed from actin by caldesmon, but not completely dissociated. This particular ternary complex was stabilized by chemical cross-linking with carbodi-imide, which does not have any spacer arm, and revealed contact interfaces between the different protein components. Cross-linking experiments showed that the presence of caldesmon had no effect on stabilization of actin-(20 kDa domain), whereas the actin-(50 kDa domain) covalent association was significantly decreased, to the point of being virtually abolished.

Lys-373 of actin is involved in binding to caldesmon

Limited proteolysis of actin with trypsin removes its two or three C-terminal amino acid residues [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81 (1984) 3680-3684]. Carboxypeptidase B-treatment of G- and F-actin previously digested with trypsin revealed that in the first case preferential release of three and in the second two C-terminal amino acid residues takes place. Tryptic removal of three but not two C-terminal amino acid residues of actin causes weakening of its interaction with caldesmon and lowering of the caldesmon-induced inhibitory effect on actomyosin ATPase activity. Therefore, it is concluded that the third amino acid residue from the C terminus of actin, Lys-373, is important for the interaction with caldesmon.

Structural relationships of actin-binding proteins

The sequences of a large number of actin-binding proteins have been compared. These findings, together with the results of protein-chemical analysis, peptide synthesis and site-directed and deletion mutagenesis, have led to the assignment of actin-binding sites. Within these segments, small actin-binding motifs have been delineated. Most actin-binding proteins interact with actin subdomain-1 but our analyses reveal neither primary nor secondary structure homology among these proteins, suggesting that actin binding does not follow simple structural principles.