Isolation of Latent 31-kDa C-Truncated Stromelysin and 21 -kDa Stromelysin from Rabbit Synovial Fibroblasts: An Alternative Activation Pathway for Stromelysin

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Abstract
The processing of culture medium of rabbit synovial fibroblasts led to the isolation of three stromelysin-1 (MMP-3) cleavage products: A 31-kDa protein, which represents a C-truncated latent stromelysin-1, an active stromelysin-1 of 21 kDa, that originates from the 31-kDa proform by activation. A third protein had a molecular mass of 25 kDa representing the C-terminal part of prostromelysin-1 and is missing in the C-truncated latent stromelysin-1. The activation process of human prostromelysin-1 in vitro is known to lead to an active stromelysin-1 with a relative molecular mass of 45 kDa by removing the N-terminal prodomain. This active stromelysin-1 is further processed to a lower molecular mass active form of 28 kDa. Our results obtained for the highly homologous rabbit stromelysin-1 indicate that another activation pathway is possible. In a first step prostromelysin-1 is hydrolysed between Met261-Glu generating a C-truncated latent stromelysin-1, which is activated by cleavage of the Thr83-Phe bond to the 21-kDa stromelysin-1. The latent C-truncated stromelysin-1 is slowly converted even at 4 degrees C into the active form. In the presence of 50 microM ZnCl2 this activation was prevented for at least three weeks. The activation rate is largely enhanced by aminophenylmercury acetate and especially by trypsin. The differences of the 21-kDa stromelysin-1 to a 28-kDa stromelysin-1 isolated from human rheumatoid synovial fluids described earlier are discussed.