Human fibronectin contains distinct adhesion- and motility-promoting domains for metastatic melanoma cells.
The active migration of tumor cells through extracellular matrices has been proposed to play a role in certain aspects of metastasis. Metastatic tumor cells migrate in vitro in response to substratum-bound adhesive glycoproteins such as fibronectin. The present studies use affinity-purified proteolytic fragments of fibronectin to determine the nature of adhesion- and/or motility-promoting domains within the protein. Two distinct fragments were identified with cell adhesion-promoting activities. By a number of criteria, the adhesive activity promoted by these two fragments was distinct. One fragment, a 75-kD tryptic fragment purified by monoclonal antibody chromatography, promoted the adhesion, spreading, and haptotactic motility of melanoma cells. Experiments using a synthetic cell attachment peptide in solution indicated that at least part of the attachment activity exhibited by the 75-kD fragment is mediated by the sequence arg-gly-asp-ser. It was not possible to demonstrate migration-stimulating activity using a small (11.5 kD) peptic fragment containing this sequence (Pierschbacher, M.D., E. G. Hayman, and E. Ruoslahti, 1981, Cell, 26:259-267) suggesting that another cell-binding activity within the 75 kD fragment distinct from arg-gly-asp-ser might be required for motility. The second fragment that stimulated melanoma adhesion was a 33-kD tryptic/catheptic carboxyl-terminal heparin-binding fragment, which is localized to the A chain of fibronectin. This fragment promotes adhesion and spreading but not the motility of these cells. Melanoma adhesion to this heparin-binding fragment was sensitive to the effects of cycloheximide, which contrasted adhesion to the haptotaxis-promoting fragment. Importantly, these studies illustrate that haptotaxis in response to fibronectin is not due to simple adhesion gradients of this protein. The results are discussed in light of a model for multiple distinct cell surface constituents mediating cell adhesion and motility on fibronectin.
D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002403:Cathepsins / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects; D002633:Chemotaxis; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000502:physiology*; D006493:Heparin / Q000378:metabolism; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D051379:Mice; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D014357:Trypsin / Q000378:metabolism
D005353:Fibronectins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D006493:Heparin; D002403:Cathepsins; D014357:Trypsin