Fibronectin: purification, immunochemical properties, and biological activities.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E G Hayman.
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We used antibodies raised against both a heparan sulfate proteoglycan purified from a mouse sarcoma and a chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan purified from a rat yolk sac carcinoma to study the appearance and distribution of proteoglycans in cultured cells. Normal rat kidney cells displayed a fibrillar network of immunoreactive material at the cell surface when stained with antibodies to heparan sulfate proteoglycan, while virally transformed rat kidney cells lacked such a surface network. Antibodies to chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan revealed a punctate pattern on the surface of both cell types. The distribution of these two proteoglycans was compared to that of fibronectin by double-labeling immunofluorescent staining. The heparan sulfate proteoglycan was found to codistribute with fibronectin, and fibronectin and laminin gave coincidental stainings. The distribution of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan was not coincidental with that of fibronectin. Distinct fibers containing fibronectin but lacking chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan were observed. When the transformed cells were cultured in the presence of sodium butyrate, their morphology changed, and fibronectin, laminin, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan appeared at the cell surface in a pattern resembling that of normal cells. These results suggest that fibronectin, laminin, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan may be complexed at the cell surface. The proteoglycan may play a central role in assembly of such complexes since heparan sulfate has been shown to interact with both fibronectin and laminin.
A novel procedure that detects adhesive proteins in complex mixtures was used to characterize such proteins in plasma. The proteins are separated by SDS PAGE and transferred to nitrocellulose filters. Cells incubated on these filters attach to those proteins that have adhesive properties. When applied to human plasma proteins this procedure reveals, in addition to fibronectin, a cell-attachment protein with a polypeptide molecular weight of 70,000. Using a monoclonal antibody that inhibits attachment of cells to fibronectin, we show that this polypeptide is not a fragment of fibronectin and we present evidence that it is a component of the serum spreading factor. Therefore, as defined by our assay, this protein and fibronectin are the major attachment proteins for fibroblastic cells in plasma or serum.
Fibronectin is a high molecular weight glycoprotein present at cell surfaces and in various body fluids. It is involved in cellular adhesion. The frequent absence of fibronectin from the surface of malignant cells may contribute to the invasive growth of tumors. To develop a better understanding of the functions of fibronectin, we have studied its structure by making use of proteolytic fragmentation and monoclonal antibodies. Fragments of plasma fibronectin which retain one or several of the affinities of intact fibronectin have been purified using affinity chromatography on collagen and heparin, and on monoclonal antibodies. These studies reveal a structure in which the different functions are located in separate protease-resistant molecular domains. The NH2-terminal domain contains the binding sites for fibrin, actin, and Staphylococci; this is followed by a collagen-binding domain, the cell attachment domain, and at the COOH-terminal end, the heparin-binding domain. These binding sites allow fibronectin to participate in multiple interactions with collagens and proteoglycans. The insoluble complexes formed by these 3 components that can be generated in vitro may represent a model for the basic structure of extracellular matrices. The role of fibronectin in such a matrix may be to contribute to the stability of the complex and to provide adhesion sites for cells. Disturbances in the interactions involving fibronectin could be potentially important to understanding diseases of connective tissues and in malignancy.
A proteoglycan was isolated from ascites fluid produced by a rat yolk sac tumor. The glycosaminoglycan chains of the proteoglycan are all sensitive to digestion with chondroitinase ABC and about 90% are sensitive to chondroitinase AC. The proteoglycan contains 5% protein. Amino acid analysis revealed a high content of serine and glycine which together constitute 37% of the amino acids. Glutamic acid (glutamine) and aspartic acid (asparagine) are also abundant. Galactosamine accounts for 97% of the hexosamine and the remainder is glucosamine. These characteristics indicate that the glycosaminoglycan side chains of this proteoglycan are predominantly chondroitin sulfate with a smaller amount of dermatan sulfate. Antibodies to the proteoglycan were prepared by immunization of a rabbit with purified alkali-treated proteoglycan. Affinity-purified antibodies from the antiserum immunoprecipitated (35S)sulfate-labeled radioactivity from culture media of the yolk sac tumor cells known to contain chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan. This binding was inhibited by the intact purified proteoglycan but not by proteoglycan treated with papain, suggesting dependence of the reactivity of the antibodies on integrity of the protein part of the proteoglycan. Immunofluorescence of the cultured yolk sac tumor cells revealed localization of immune reactive proteoglycans at the cell surface.
Gelatin-binding material was isolated from a human plasma cryoprecipitate by affinity chromatography on gelatin-Sepharose. Individual fragments of fibronectin with Mr = 170,000, 100,000, and 80,000 and a mixture of fragments with Mr = 205,000 and 190,000 (200K fraction) were isolated from this material. These fragments reacted with antifibronectin and with antibodies to a gelatin-binding Mr = 70,000 tryptic fragment of fibronectin. They all shared the same NH2-terminal amino acid sequence. The 205K and 190K fragments bound also to heparin-Sepharose, whereas the smaller fragments did not. The 200K fraction and the 170K fragment mediated cell attachment when used to coat plastic, whereas the 100K and 80K fragments were inactive in this assay. Further digestion of the 205K and 190K fragments with chymotrypsin yielded separate sets of smaller fragments that bound to either gelatin-Sepharose or heparin-Sepharose, as well as fragments that did not show either of these binding activities but mediated cell attachment. Since the NH2-terminal ends of the 205K, 190K, 100K, and 80K fragments are the same, the results define the order of the active sites in the fibronectin molecule as gelatin-binding site, cell attachment site, and heparin-binding site.
Human fibronectin was isolated from second-trimester amniotic fluid, from amniotic fluid obtained at term and from adult plasma. The amniotic-fluid fibronectins had a slightly higher apparent molecular weight on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis than the plasma fibronectin. Early- and late-amniotic-fluid fibronectin had 9.5 and 9.6% carbohydrate respectively, whereas plasma fibronectin had 5.8%. The amniotic-fluid fibronectins had similar mannose and sialic acid contents to plasma fibronectin, but greater amounts of glucosamine, galactosamine, galactose and fucose. There were no detectable differences in the amino-acid composition of amniotic-fluid and plasma fibronectins, and the patterns of peptides obtained after tryptic digestion of fibronectin from the two sources showed extensive similarities. Fibronectins from plasma and amniotic fluid were equally active in promoting cell attachment and were immunologically indistinguishable. These results show that fibronectin from amniotic fluid is more heavily glycosylated than plasma fibronectin or previously analysed fibronectins from cultured fibroblasts. The observed differences in glycosylation may be related to cell type and/or stage of development.
Proteolytic fragments of human plasma fibronectin were used to identify monoclonal antibodies reacting with the various domains of fibronectin. One of these antibodies, which reacts with cell-attachment-promoting fragments of fibronectin, inhibits attachment of cells to fibronectin-coated surfaces. A cell-attachment-promoting, chymotryptic, 120 kilodalton fragment was cleaved further with pepsin into three main fragments. The smallest, 15 kilodalton fragment was purified by affinity chromatography on the cell-attachment-inhibiting antibody insolubilized on Sepharose. This fragment is active in promoting cell attachment but lacks the other known binding activities of fibronectin. It can be localized between the collagen-binding and heparin-binding domains, about 127 to 197 kilodaltons from the NH2 terminus of the polypeptide. These results show that the interaction of fibronectin with cells is restricted to a defined portion of the molecule and is independent of the direct involvement of the known affinities toward other macromolecules.
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Both fibronectin and laminin were found by immunofluorescence as a matrix at the surface of normal rat kidney cells. These matrices were absent from the surface of virally transformed rat kidney cells. Soluble fibronectin and laminin were detected in the culture media of the transformed as well as the normal cells. Culture supernates of the transformed cells contained even more fibronectin than the supernates of the transformed cells contained even more fibronectin than the supernates of the normal cells while laminin was present in similar amounts in both culture media. This shows that the loss of fibronectin and laminin from the surface of the transformed cells is caused by failure of the cells to deposit these proteins into an insoluble matrix and not caused by inadequate production. Fibronectins isolated from culture media of the normal and transformed cells were similar in SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophresis. Laminin isolated from culture media by affinity chromatography on heparin-Sepharose followed by immunoprecipitation was composed of three main polypeptides, one with a molecular weight of 400,000 and two with a molecular weight close to 200,000 in both cell types. Fibronectins from both cell types were equally active in promoting cell attachment. Rat fibronectin from transformed cells, like normal cells, when applied to culture dishes coated with fibronectin, readily attached and spread on the substratum, requiring approximately the same amount of fibronectin as the normal cells. On the basis of these results it seem that the failure of the transformed cells to incorporate fibronectin into an insoluble cell surface matix is not a consequence of a demonstrable change in the functional characteristics of the fibronectin molecule or in the ability of the cells to interact with fibronectin. It may depend on as yet unidentified interactions of the cell surface. Similar interactions may be needed for the deposition of laminin into the matrix, because laminin was also absent from the surface of transformed cells, despite its being synthesized by these cells.
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Fibronectin mediates attachment of cells to surfaces in vitro, and its abundance in basement membrane structures suggests that it serves a similar function in vivo. The cell attachment promoting activity of fibronectin depends on its capacity to interact with a number of other macromolecules. These include collagen, fibrin(ogen), glycosaminoglycans, and as yet unidentified receptors on the surfaces of various mammalian and avian cells and on the surfaces of Staphylococci. Denatured collagens bind more avidly to fibronectin than the native forms. Of the latter, type III is the most active one. The collagen-binding is inhibited by fibrinogen and vice versa, indicating that the same (or overlapping) binding site are responsible for the binding of fibronectin to collagen and fibrinogen. The binding site for collagen in fibronectin can be localized in a homogeneous fragment with a molecular weight of 30,000. This binding site is distinct from the one interacting with cell surfaces, since the cell attachment promoting activity is found associated with collagen-nonbinding fragments of fibronectin. These same fragments also bind to Staphylococci, suggesting that the cell surface receptor in these bacteria may be similar to that of eukaryotic cells. Glycosaminoglycans bind to collagen-fibronectin complexes resulting in a complex more stable to disruption with urea than complexes of any two of the components. This phenomenon may be important in the formation of the fibronectin-containing, adhesive, extracellular matrix, and its significance to the apparent disturbances that many malignant cells have in forming such a matrix in particular, warrants further study.
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Normal rat kidney cells were cultured in medium supplemented with normal fetal bovine serum (FBS) or FBS depleted of fibronectin. The cell surface fibronectin of these cultures was visualized by indirect immunofluorescence using species-specific antisera for either rat fibronectin or bovine fibronectin. Anti-rat-fibronectin revealed fibrillar structures on the cells grown in either normal medium or fibronectin-depleted medium. Anti-bovine fibronectin revealed similar fibrillar networks, but only on the cells grown in medium containing bovine fibronectin. Staining in each case was abolished by absorption with the homologous antigen. It appears that exogenous fibronectin was incorporated into the same structures as endogenous fibronectin. This finding suggests that circulating fibronectin may serve as a building block for the assembly of extracellular matrix, possibly by cells which are incapable of synthesizing it.
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