title: Heterodimer formation is essential for heparanase enzymatic activity.
abstract: Heparanase is an endo-beta-D-glucuronidase involved in cleavage of heparan sulfate residues and hence participates in extracellular matrix degradation and remodeling. The heparanase cDNA encodes for a polypeptide of 543 amino acids that appears as a approximately 65 kDa band in SDS-PAGE analysis. The protein undergoes a proteolytic cleavage that is likely to occur at two potential cleavage sites, Glu(109)-Ser(110) and Gln(157)-Lys(158), yielding an 8 kDa polypeptide at the N-terminus, a 50 kDa polypeptide at the C-terminus, and a 6 kDa linker polypeptide that resides in-between. The active form of heparanase has long been thought to be a 50 kDa polypeptide isolated from cells and tissues. However, attempts to obtain heparanase activity after expression of the 50 kDa polypeptide failed, suggesting that the N-terminal region is important for heparanase enzymatic activity. It has been hypothesized that heterodimer formation between the 8 and 50 kDa heparanase subunits is important for heparanase enzymatic activity. By individually or co-expressing the 8 and 50 kDa heparanase subunits in mammalian cells, we demonstrate specific association between the heparanase subunits by means of co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down experiments. Moreover, a region in the 50 kDa heparanase subunit that mediates interaction with the 8 kDa subunit was identified. Altogether, our results clearly indicate that heterodimer formation is necessary and sufficient for heparanase enzymatic activity in mammalian cells.
authors.affiliation: Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center, The Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa 31096, Israel.
authors.forename: Flonia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Levy-Adam
authors.forename: Hua-Quan
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Heinrikson
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vlodavsky
authors.forename: Neta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ilan
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D001665:Binding Sites; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D019281:Dimerization; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000378:metabolism; D006497:Heparan Sulfate / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010957:Plasmids / Q000378:metabolism; D011233:Precipitin Tests; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D000099175:Heparanase
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005966:Glucuronidase; D005982:Glutathione Transferase; D006497:Heparan Sulfate; D010455:Peptides; D000099175:Heparanase