Endocrinology, Vol 137, 1608-1617, Copyright © 1996 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

Elimination of the carboxy-terminal sequences of parathyroid hormone- related protein 1-173 increases production and secretion of the truncated forms

LS Ditmer, DW Burton and LJ Deftos
Department of Medicine, San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, California, USA.

The endoproteolytic processing of polypeptides at basic residues into distinct biologically active peptides is a common theme in prohormone maturation and processing. PTH-related protein (PTHrP) 1-173 contains eight putative endoproteolytic consensus sites that include a mono- arginyl (R37), paired basic (RR154-155), and related basic residue motifs (RLKR-4 to -1, RRR19-21, KKKK88-91, KRK96-98, KKKRR102-106, and KKKK147-150). To analyze the primary structural determinants involved in the posttranslational processing and secretion of PTHrP 1-173, we constructed a series of nonsense mutants that code for carboxy-terminal truncated polypeptides. Since the basic residue motifs are probable sites of endoproteolysis, these sites and the residues downstream were serially eliminated, thereby creating PTHrP 1-152, 1-146, 1-101, 1-95, 1-87, 1-36, and 1-18. The wild type PTHrP 1-173 and nonsense mutant constructs were transiently transfected into two cell lines, COS-1 and SK-N-BE(2). The COS-1 cells have a constitutive secretory pathway, whereas the neuroblastoma-derived BE-2 cells have, in addition, a regulated secretory pathway. PTHrP was measured in the conditioned media and cell extracts of the transfected cells with two peptide- specific RIAs. In COS-1 cells, PTHrP truncation mutants 1-152, 1-146, 1- 101, 1-95, and 1-87 were present relative to wild type isoform 1-173, at 4.4-, 3-, 19-, 12-, and 57-fold excess, respectively; a similar pattern was also detected with BE-2 transfected cells, although the relative increases above the quantities of PTHrP 1-173 were not as dramatic. As the carboxy-terminal sequences were eliminated, the amount of total and secreted PTHrP increased, and the percentage found within the cell decreased. In COS-1 cells, 10.5% of the total PTHrP 1-173 was intracellular, whereas only 1% of the total PTHrP 1-87 was intracellular. In BE-2 cells, 54% of the total PTHrP 1-173 and only 9% of the total 1-87 mutant were intracellular. In COS-1 cells, a time course analysis demonstrated that PTHrP 1-87 and 1-95 were detectable in media 3 h after transfection, whereas 1-173 was barely detectable after 24 h. Our studies suggest that the carboxy-terminal sequence of PTHrP 1-173 is responsible for the intracellular degradation of this polypeptide, which may be the endogenous cellular mechanism that regulates the amount of processed and secreted PTHrP.

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