title: Glycosylation enhances functional stability of the chemotactic cytokine CCL2.
abstract: The human chemokine CCL2 gene was expressed in the yeast P.pastoris and gave rise to a mixture of differently glycosylated recombinant proteins. In comparison to non-glycosylated E.coli-derived CCL2, glycosylated yeast CCL2L was 4-20 times less active in a chemotactic assay in vitro. However, CCL2L could maintain full activity upon prolonged incubation at 37 degrees C, whereas the non-glycosylated chemokine readily lost activity. It could be hypothesized that glycosylation is a mechanism used by the organism to modulate CCL2 stability. The partial loss of specific activity due to glycosylation is balanced by the advantage of prolonging the effectiveness of chemokine. Thus, differential glycosylation allows one to obtain highly effective short-lived CCL2 or less-effective long-lived CCL2 and may thus represent a novel mechanism of adaptation to pathological versus physiological conditions.
authors.affiliation: Dompé Research Centre, L'Aquila, Italy. borasc@tin.it
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Flati
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Cioccio
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maurizi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Macchia
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Facchin
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Anacardio
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maras
authors.forename: Marilena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lucarelli
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boraschi
mesh_terms: D018925:Chemokines / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D010843:Pichia / Q000235:genetics; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018925:Chemokines; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D011994:Recombinant Proteins