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Title: Human skin fibroblast stromelysin: structure, glycosylation, substrate specificity, and differential expression in normal and tumorigenic cells

Journal Article · · Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.; (United States)

The authors have purified and determined the complete primary structure of human stromelysin, a secreted metalloprotease with a wide range of substrate specificities. Human stromelysin is synthesized in a preproenzyme form with a calculated size of 53,977 Da and a 17-amino acid long signal peptide. Prostromelysin is secreted in two forms, with apparent molecular masses on NaDodSO/sub 4//PAGE of 60 and 57 kDa. Human stromelysin is capable of degrading proteoglycan, fibronectin, laminin, and type IV collagen but not interstitial type I collagen. The enzyme is not capable of activating purified human fibroblast procollagenase. Analysis of its primary structure shows that stromelysin is in all likelihood the human analog of rat transin, which is an oncogene transformation-induced protease. The pattern of enzyme expression in normal and tumorigenic cells revealed that human skin fibroblasts in vitro secrete stromelysin constitutively. Human fetal lung fibroblasts transformed with simian virus 40, human bronchial epithelial cells transformed with the ras oncogene, fibrosarcoma cells (HT-1080), and a melanoma cell strain (A 2058), do not express this protease nor can the enzyme be induced in these cells by treatment with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. The data indicate that the expression and the possible involvement of secreted metalloproteases in tumorigenesis result from a specific interaction between the transforming factor and the target cell, which may vary in different species.

Research Organization:
Washington Univ. School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (USA)
OSTI ID:
7242245
Journal Information:
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.; (United States), Vol. 84:19
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English