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Biomedical subjects

H Furthmayr

Publications and source records attributed to H Furthmayr.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Cloning and sequencing of porcine moesin and radixin cDNA and identification of highly conserved domains.

The full length cDNA of porcine moesin and radixin have been cloned and sequenced. Comparison of the closely related sequences of human, murine and porcine moesin, ezrin and radixin with a protein from Echinococcus multilocularis, an evolutionarily quite distant human parasite, reveals several highly invariant domains in the aminoterminal and carboxyterminal regions. Most of these conserved domains are clustered around tyrosine residues that are putative phosphorylation sites for tyrosine phosphokinases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1993

Molecular cloning, cDNA sequence, and chromosomal assignment of the human radixin gene and two dispersed pseudogenes.

Radixin is a cytoskeletal protein that may be important in linking actin to the plasma membrane. Recent cloning of the murine and porcine radixin cDNAs revealed a protein highly homologous to ezrin and moesin. We have cloned and sequenced the human radixin cDNA and found the predicted amino acid sequence for the human protein to be nearly identical to those predicted for radixin in the two other species. By Southern analyses of Chinese hamster x human somatic cell hybrid DNA and of PCR products derived from hybrids, the coding gene (RDX) was mapped to 11q. Fluorescence chromosomal in situ hybridization with a cDNA plasmid further localized this gene to band 11q23. However, PCR amplification with "radixin-specific" primers on the hybrid DNA panel yielded an additional, very similar DNA sequence that was further characterized by direct sequencing of PCR products. This sequence represents a truncated version and the respective locus (RDXP2) was assigned to Xp21.3. Furthermore, by employing a different set of primers, a third sequence was found that was 90% identical to the radixin sequence but contained termination codons and seemed to lack introns. This pseudogene (RDXP1) was mapped to 11p by Southern and PCR analyses.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1993

Missense mutations impair intracellular processing of fibrillin and microfibril assembly in Marfan syndrome.

Dermal fibroblasts from nine Marfan syndrome patients with missense mutations in the fibrillin-1 gene (FBN1) produced nearly normal amounts of fibrillin as determined by quantitative pulse-chase experiments. However, six of the seven mutations involving substitutions of highly conserved cysteine residues exhibited lower rates of intracellular transport and secretion. This effect is likely due to improper folding, since intracellular fibrillin processing was also affected by the reducing agent dithiothreitol. Normal secretion patterns were seen in three mutations that either change the conformation of EGF-like domains or change consensus amino acids required for Ca(++)-binding. In all nine fibroblasts strains, however, the deposition of fibrillin in the extracellular matrix was reduced to 50% of normal in two and to less than 30% in seven of the nine samples studied. The protein alterations caused by these missense mutations are associated with moderate to severe features of Marfan syndrome and a dominant negative mechanism is suggested to play a major role in their pathogenesis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Basement membranes in adenoid cystic carcinoma. An immunohistochemical study.

Tissue samples from 30 patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma and 20 with adenocarcinoma of salivary gland origin were studied by immunohistochemical staining with specific antibodies to the four macromolecules that are present in normal basement membranes: type IV collagen, laminin, heparan sulfate proteoglycan, and entactin. In the adenoid cystic carcinoma samples, the four proteins were localized in different types of extracellular matrices in the tumor, namely pseudocystic spaces, hyaline stroma, and around tumor cell nests. The staining intensity was enhanced by pretreatment with hyaluronidase. The tumor cells of adenoid cystic carcinoma showed a tendency to proliferate with individual cells in contact with the basement membrane and to infiltrate through basement membrane-rich tissues, such as peripheral nerves, blood vessels, and skeletal muscles. In contrast, only circumferential staining of tumor cell nests was obtained in adenocarcinoma samples. The results suggest that adenoid cystic carcinoma is a tumor with affinity for basement membranes, and this basic feature is reflected in its histology and presumably in its biologic behavior. Immunostaining with antibodies to basement membrane proteins appears to be useful for differential diagnosis of some types of these two carcinomas.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1991

Moesin: a member of the protein 4.1-talin-ezrin family of proteins.

Moesin (membrane-organizing extension spike protein, pronounced mó ez in) has previously been isolated from bovine uterus and characterized as a possible receptor protein for heparan sulfate. We now have cloned and sequenced its complete cDNA, which represents a single 4.2-kilobase mRNA encoding a protein of 577 amino acids. It contains no apparent signal peptide or transmembrane domain. In addition, the protein shows significant sequence identity (72%) to ezrin (cytovillin, p81), as well as similarity to protein 4.1 and talin. All of the latter proteins have been postulated to serve as structural links between the plasma membrane and the cytoskeleton. A similar role for moesin is implied by structure and domain predictions derived from the cDNA-deduced peptide sequence. Furthermore, our data indicate that moesin is identical to the 77-kDa band that copurifies with ezrin in its isolation from human placenta [Bretscher, A. (1989) J. Cell Biol. 108, 921-930].

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Characterization of the major heparan sulfate proteoglycan secreted by bovine aortic endothelial cells in culture. Homology to the large molecular weight molecule of basement membranes.

To determine the precise architecture and functional characteristics of the subendothelial basal lamina, detailed information of the molecules contained in this structure is required. To this end, we have studied low passage bovine aortic endothelial cells and have isolated the major heparan sulfate-containing proteoglycan from the growth medium of the cells maintained under static culture conditions. This large macromolecule consists of a core protein approximately 500,000 daltons in mass and two to three glycan side chains as revealed by carbon/platinum rotary shadow casting. Specific antibodies raised by immunization of rabbits with the native or deglycosylated bovine molecule could be isolated from an immunoadsorption column prepared with a preparation isolated from the murine Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm tumor. The antibodies purified by immunoaffinity react with basement membranes of blood vessels, lung, liver, or skin, and this reactivity is indistinguishable, at least for the organs studied, from the reactivity of antibodies specific for the Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm tumor-derived high molecular weight heparan sulfate proteoglycan isolated previously. Immunoelectron microscopy of frozen ultrathin tissue sections from the kidney indicates localization of the epitope(s) also in the basement membranes of the renal glomeruli and tubuli. The close structural relationship and homology between the aortic endothelial cell product can be demonstrated even more convincingly by two-dimensional peptide mapping procedures. The peptide patterns from the bovine and mouse products of approximately 500 kDa are nearly indistinguishable. Maps of polypeptides of molecular masses ranging from 400 to 150 kDa, which are found in the bovine as well mouse tumor preparation, are clearly related to each other and suggest that this proteoglycan is quite sensitive to degradation by tissue proteases. Thus the data presented here strongly suggest that the large proteoglycan previously isolated and described as a tumor cell product can be produced by normal cells.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1987

Immunoelectronmicroscopic localization of extracellular matrix components produced by bovine corneal endothelial cells in vitro.

Bovine corneal endothelial cells deposit an extracellular matrix in short-term cultures, which contains various morphologically distinct structures when analysed by electron microscopy after negative staining. Amongst these were long-spacing fibers with a 150 nm periodicity, which appeared also to be assembled into more complex hexagonal lattices. Another structure was fine filaments, 10-40 nm in diameter, which occasionally exhibited 67 nm periodic cross-striation. Non-striated 10-20 nm filaments sometimes formed radially oriented bundles arranged in networks and fuzzy granular material was associated with the filaments in the bundles. Often, these bundles extended into solitary filaments, 10-20 nm in diameter, with a smooth surface. In addition, amorphous patches were seen, which contained dense aggregates of fibrillar and granular material. In longer-term cultures, some of the structures coalesced to form large fibrillar bundles. By using specific antibodies to various extracellular matrix components and immunolabeling with gold some of these structures could be identified as to their protein composition. Whereas fibronectin antibodies labeled a variety of structures--fine filaments with granular materials, radially oriented bundles, patchy amorphous aggregates and small granular material scattered throughout the background--type III collagen antibody predominantly labeled filaments with periodic banding (10-40 nm in diameter). A small amount of type III specific labeling was also observed over the networks of radially oriented fibrils and fine filaments associated with granular material. Type IV collagen and laminin antibodies localized in areas of the patchy amorphous aggregates. Type VI collagen antibodies, on the other hand, labeled fine filaments and the gold particles showed a pattern of 100 nm periodicity. Many of the fine 10-20 nm filaments exhibited a tubular appearance on cross-section, but they were not reactive with any of the antibodies used. Also negative were the long-spacing fibers and assemblies--including hexagonal lattices--containing this structural element.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Aortic endothelial cell proteoheparan sulfate. II. Modulation by extracellular matrix.

The effects of extracellular matrix components on proteoheparan sulfate biosynthesis was studied for bovine aortic endothelial cells in tissue culture. When the cells were maintained on a variety of different purified components of the extracellular matrix, the cells expressed the same three species of proteoheparan sulfates as the cells cultured on tissue culture plastic (HS I, HS II, and HS III). However, the amounts of the three species recovered from the tissue culture medium were found to be dependent on the substrate on which the cells are grown as well as on other factors. In comparison with plastic, much less HS I was found in the medium of cells maintained on substrates containing diverse matrix molecules, whereas the amounts of HS II and HS III essentially remained the same. In contrast, when bovine aortic organ cultures were analyzed under pulsatile flow, marked differences in the profile of proteoheparan sulfate biosynthesis were observed: HS I was found exclusively associated with the plasma membrane of the endothelial cells; HS II was localized only to the subendothelial matrix; and HS III represented the only proteoheparan sulfate species in the medium. This distribution is consistent with polarized secretion and deposition into the subcellular matrix of HS III and retention of HS I in the plasma membrane in the organ culture situation, a biosynthetic phenotype which can only be approximated at best by maintaining the endothelial cells on a substrate other than plastic. When aortic media (devoid of endothelial cells) was placed in organ culture, no HS III could be detected, which suggested that the vascular endothelial cell is the major cell type responsible for its synthesis in organ culture. Thus, the extracellular matrix, depending upon its composition and organization, may play an important role in stabilizing cell polarity and thereby contribute to maintenance of the differentiated phenotype appropriate for the endothelial cell.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Aortic endothelial cell proteoheparan sulfate. I. Isolation and characterization of plasmamembrane-associated and extracellular species.

Proteoheparan sulfate biosynthesis was studied in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells by means of pulse and pulse-chase experiments and subcellular fractionations. Three proteoheparan sulfate species were found in the medium. The major species, which the authors have called HS I, appeared in the medium only after an initial lag period and was also found associated with the plasma membrane. The other two (HS II and HS III) appeared in small amounts in the medium at early time points. At later times these were not readily observed because the large amounts of HS I present in the medium. The major medium species, HS I, appeared to be composed of approximately four heparan sulfate chains of approximately 35,000 daltons and a core protein of approximately 55,000 daltons apparent molecular weight. HS I appeared to be homogeneous by gel filtration on Sepharose CL 2B and 6B and elution from DEAE Sephacel, electrophoresis on Nu-Sieve agarose, and CsCl density centrifugation. After digestion with heparinase the core protein appeared to be homogeneous by S-200 Sephacel chromatography. HS I was also found associated with plasma membrane fractions of the cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells, and antisera raised against it stained epithelial and endothelial cells in patterns consistent with a cell surface localization. Of the other two species found in the medium, one (HS II) also appeared to be a component of the cell layer. This species appeared to contain approximately four heparan sulfate chains of approximately 20,000 daltons apparent molecular weight. Antisera raised against a similar molecule produced by HR 9 cell cultures stained basement membranes intensely, supporting the subcellular matrix localization of this molecule. The third species (HS III) was detected in culture medium only and apparently contained two heparan sulfate chains of approximately 20,000 daltons apparent molecular weight. These results support the concept of multiple endothelial cell proteoheparan sulfate species which exhibit differences in structure and localization and possibly diverse specialized functions.

5'-Nucleotidase↗
PubMed1986

Isolation and characterization of basement membrane and cell proteoheparan sulphates from HR9 cells.

The mouse teratocarcinoma cell line HR9 was investigated for proteoheparan sulphate production. Four species of proteoheparan sulphate molecules were isolated and purified to homogeneity. The proteoheparan sulphate isolated from the tissue-culture medium contains four heparan sulphate side-chains of 25 kDa each, and its core protein has an approximate molecular mass of 50 kDa. The proteoheparan sulphates associated with the cells were separated into three individual species: cell proteoheparan sulphate I exhibits structural characteristics which are very similar to the proteoheparan sulphate isolated from the tissue culture medium; cell proteoheparan sulphates II and III contain one heparan sulphate chain of 25 kDa and 20 kDa, and core proteins of approximately 30 kDa and 25 kDa respectively. Antisera, raised against the medium form, react specifically with basement membranes in various tissues by immunofluorescence. This staining pattern was compared to the pattern observed with an antiserum which we have obtained to a proteoheparan sulphate species isolated from the plasma membrane of bovine aortic endothelial cells. The structural and immunological data suggest that basement membrane and plasma membrane proteoheparan sulphates are different biosynthetic products and are not directly related to each other.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1986

Inhibition of laminin self-assembly and interaction with type IV collagen by antibodies to the terminal domain of the long arm.

Laminin is a major glycoprotein of the basement membrane. Although its precise localization and orientation within this structure is unknown, it is presumably anchored to other macromolecules such as type IV collagen or proteoheparan sulfate. In vitro, laminin has the ability to self-assemble and to bind to type IV collagen molecules at distinct sites. To identify more precisely the domains of the complex, cross-shaped laminin molecule that are involved in these interactions, images of laminin-laminin dimers and laminin-type IV collagen complexes obtained by the rotary shadowing method were analyzed. We observed that the complex domain at the end of the long arm of laminin is predominantly involved in these interactions. By using Fab fragments of antibodies specific for a peptide fragment derived from this complex domain, it is shown that laminin self-assembly is inhibited in their presence, as measured by turbidity and by electron microscopy. In addition, these antibodies inhibit the specific interaction of laminin with type IV collagen. These data suggest that the complex domain at the end of the long arm of laminin contains binding sites of potential importance for the assembly of basement membranes.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Models for the self-assembly of basement membrane.

Basement membranes contain a number of intrinsic macromolecular components which are unique to these structures and which cooperatively assemble into specific heteropolymeric matrices. Type IV collagen triple helical monomers bind together at their amino-terminal, carboxy-terminal, and lateral domains to form a lattice-like array. Laminin, in a two-step process, binds to itself at its terminal globular domains to form polymers and also binds collagen at two distinct sites along the collagen chain. Heparan sulfate proteoglycan has been found to bind both collagen and laminin, suggesting a reversible crosslinking function. On the basis of the data derived from self-association studies, it is possible to begin considering models for the assembly and structure of these ubiquitous matrices.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Laminin polymerization in vitro. Evidence for a two-step assembly with domain specificity.

Laminin, a major structural glycoprotein of basement membranes, has been found to self-associate in vitro into large polymers. The formation of these complexes can be followed by the development of turbidity upon incubation in neutral phosphate buffer at 21-35 degrees C and is seen to be time-, concentration-, and temperature-dependent. The process is thermally reversible at 4 degrees C and the protein can be cycled between a dispersed and an aggregated state by alternating between 4 and 35 degrees C. Following incubation at 35 degrees C much of the monomeric laminin, which sediments at 11.4 S, is now seen to sediment at greater than 25 S. Both by turbidometric and sedimentation analysis, an apparent critical concentration for assembly of about 0.1 mg/ml (10(-7) M) is observed and is interpreted as evidence for a nucleation-propagation polymerization mechanism. The relative paucity of intermediates seen in a size-distribution analysis lends further support for this model. On platinum replicas obtained by rotary shadowing analysis, mostly free monomers are seen in the cold while after incubation at 35 degrees C, large multimeric aggregates with smaller amounts of oligomers are observed. The interaction between individual molecules appears to be specific because the dimers, trimers, and smaller oligomers are only associated at the terminal globular domains of the laminin molecules. In addition, removal of the globular domains of laminin with pepsin, which yields fragment P1, abolishes self-association. A divalent cation dependency for polymerization can be demonstrated and incubation in the presence of EDTA stops the polymerization at an oligomeric intermediate step. Hence overall laminin self-assembly can be divided into at least two steps: an initial temperature-dependent, divalent cation independent step followed by a divalent cation-dependent step.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Chondronectin: physical and chemical properties.

Chondronectin, the chondrocyte attachment factor, was purified from chicken serum and characterized as to its physical and chemical properties. From sedimentation equilibrium data it was found to have a native molecular weight of 175,800 +/- 800 and a subunit molecular weight of 55,540 +/- 800 in the presence of guanidinium chloride and cysteine, suggesting a trimeric structure linked by disulfide bonds. As visualized by electron microscopy after rotary shadowing, the protein appears compact and globular. The amino acid and carbohydrate compositions of chondronectin are distinct from fibronectin, the fibroblast attachment factor, and laminin, the epithelial cell attachment factor. The activity of chondronectin in promoting attachment of chondrocytes is stable to digestion by collagenase, elastase, and neuraminidase, but is destroyed by trypsin treatment. The data suggest that chondronectin is structurally and chemically distinct from fibronectin and laminin.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1985

Binding of laminin to type IV collagen: a morphological study.

A mixture of laminin and type IV collagen was analyzed by rotary shadowing using carbon/platinum and electron microscopy. Laminin was found to form distinct complexes with type IV collagen: one site of interaction is located 140 nm from the COOH-terminal, noncollagenous (NC1) domain and the other is located within the NH2-terminal region. The isolated NC1 fragment of type IV collagen does not appear to interact with laminin, while pepsin-treated type IV collagen, which lacks the NC1 domain, retains its ability to form complexes with laminin. Analysis of the laminin-type IV complexes indicates that laminin binds to type IV collagen via the globular regions of either of its four arms. This finding is supported by experiments using fragment P1 of laminin which lacks the globular regions and which does not bind to type IV collagen in a specific way. In addition, after heat-denaturation of laminin no specific binding is observed.

Animals↗