Characterization of a ligand for receptor protein-tyrosine kinase HTK expressed in immature hematopoietic cells.

HTK is a receptor tyrosine kinase that belongs to the Eph subfamily. An extensive screening using BIAcore system revealed that a colon cancer cell line, C-1, expressed the ligand for HTK. From the conditioned medium of C-1 cells, a soluble form of ligand was purified by receptor affinity chromatography, and the isolation of full-length cDNA revealed that this ligand is identical to the human HTK ligand (HTKL) previously reported. HTK receptor tyrosine phosphorylation was induced by membrane-bound or clustered soluble HTKL but not by unclustered soluble HTKL, indicating that HTKL requires cell-to-cell interaction for receptor activation. Binding analysis demonstrated that HTKL binds to HTK with a much higher affinity (Kd: 1.23 nM) than the other transmembrane-type ligand for Eph family, LERK-2/ELKL (Kd: 135 nM). The expression of HTK in cord blood cells was upregulated after the culture in the presence of stem cell factor. Clustered soluble HTKL stimulated the proliferation of sorted HTK+ cord blood cells and a hematopoietic cell line, UT-7/EPO from which HTK was isolated. These findings suggest the involvement of HTK-HTKL system in the proliferation of HTK+ hematopoietic progenitor cells in the hematopoietic environment.

Capillary column high-performance liquid chromatographic-electrospray ionization triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometric analysis of proteins separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Application to cerebellar protein mapping.

A method is presented for the structural characterization of proteins separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE). The method includes separation of a protein mixture by 2D-PAGE, recovery of proteins from the gel spots revealed by copper staining and analysis of the proteins by triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometry using an electrospray ionization interface (ESI-TSQMS). Prior to the mass spectrometric analysis, the extracted proteins were passed through a small reversed-phase column (10 x 4.0 mm I.D.) to remove salts and gel-derived contaminants and then introduced into the mass spectrometer through a reversed-phase capillary column with 0.25 mm I.D. Application of the method to the analysis of rat cerebellar proteins suggests that the molecular mass could be accurately determined with sub-picomole amounts of protein samples derived from one or two 2D gels. The method was also useful for peptide mapping and determination of amino acid sequences of proteins micro-prepared from the 2D gel. Because 2D-PAGE has an excellent resolving power in protein separation and because capillary LC-ESI-TSQMS provides structural information with very small amounts of samples, the combined system of 2D-PAGE and capillary LC-ESI-TSQMS described here should allow wide applications to molecular studies of genes and proteins, such as identifications of protein spots on 2D gels, confirmation of gene/protein sequences and analysis of post-translational modification of proteins present naturally in tissue/cell extracts or expressed by recombinant DNA techniques.

Identification of the site of interaction of the 14-3-3 protein with phosphorylated tryptophan hydroxylase.

The 14-3-3 protein family plays a role in a wide variety of cell signaling processes including monoamine synthesis, exocytosis, and cell cycle regulation, but the structural requirements for the activity of this protein family are not known. We have previously shown that the 14-3-3 protein binds with and activates phosphorylated tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH, the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of neurotransmitter serotonin) and proposed that this activity might be mediated through the COOH-terminal acidic region of the 14-3-3 molecules. In this report we demonstrate, using a series of truncation mutants of the 14-3-3 eta isoform expressed in Escherichia coli, that the COOH-terminal region, especially restricted in amino acids 171-213, binds indeed with the phosphorylated TPH. This restricted region, which we termed 14-3-3 box I, is one of the structural regions whose sequence is highly conserved beyond species, allowing that the plant 14-3-3 isoform (GF14) could also activate rat brain TPH. The 14-3-3 box I is the first functional region whose activity has directly been defined in the 14-3-3 sequence and may represent a common structural element whereby 14-3-3 interacts with other target proteins such as Raf-1 kinase. The result is consistent with the recently published crystal structure of this protein family, which suggests the importance of the negatively charged groove-like structure in the ligand binding.

Fluid shear stress increases the expression of thrombomodulin by cultured human endothelial cells.

Endothelial cells (ECs) cultured from human umbilical vein were exposed to medium flow in a flow-loading chamber, and changes in thrombomodulin (TM) expression were examined by flow cytometry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay with monoclonal antibody. The expression of TM antigen was increased time- and shear stress-dependently by flow, and when exposed to a shear stress of 15 dynes/cm2 for 24 hr, it increased to approximately 200% of the stationary control level. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction showed that TM mRNA levels in ECs also increased in response to flow. TM mRNA began to increase one hour after the application of shear stress of 15 dynes/cm2 and reached a maximum (approximately 330% of stationary control) after eight hours. These results, demonstrating an up-regulating effect of flow on TM expression in ECs, suggest that shear stress may be an important modulator of intravascular blood coagulation.

Automated two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system for mapping proteins in highly complex mixtures.

An automated two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system was developed for systematic protein separations which could serve for analytical mapping and preparative separations of proteins. The system applies the principles of the column-switching technique, and consists of two different columns connected in tandem through an electrical column switching valve, two pumping systems to operate each column independently and a system controller to perform sequential chromatography on the two columns. A protein mixture is applied to the first-dimensional anion-exchange column and is separated by stepwise elution with an increasing sodium chloride concentration. The eluent is introduced directly to the second-dimensional reversed-phase column, and is further separated by gradient elution with an increasing acetonitrile concentration. The two elution stages are synchronized by a computer program. By this system, very complex protein mixtures such as crude cerebellar extracts were resolved reproducibly into ca. 200 peaks within 12 h. The method can be used for the total analysis of proteins in various tissues and cells without complicated premanupulation of samples, and allows the simultaneous analysis of a protein isolated by chromatography. The isolated protein is most suitable for use in the strategy of protein and gene sequence analysis.