INTERACTION OF RECOMBINANT MYOCILIN WITH THE MATRICELLULAR PROTEIN SPARC: FUNCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

AUTHORS.

Aroca-Aguilar JD, Sánchez-Sánchez F, Ghosh S, Fernández-Navarro A, Coca-Prados M, Escribano J.

PURPOSE.

Myocilin is an extracellular glycoprotein with unknown function that is associated with glaucoma. Calpain II cleaves recombinant myocilin within the linker region of the protein, releasing the C-terminal olfactomedin domain from the N-terminal domain. The authors previously reported that myocilin interacts with the C-terminal region of hevin, a secretory glycoprotein belonging to the SPARC family of matricellular proteins. This study aims to investigate the interaction of myocilin with SPARC.

METHODS

Protein-protein interactions were evaluated by the yeast two-hybrid system. The positive interactions were confirmed by solid-phase binding assays using Ni-chelating HPLC purified recombinant proteins and coexpression of recombinant proteins in HEK-293T cells. Coexpression of myocilin, SPARC, and hevin in ocular tissues was identified by immunoflorescence microscopy, Western blot, and array-based gene profiling.

RESULTS

Yeast two-hybrid analyses showed that myocilin interacted with the highly conserved C-terminal extracellular calcium binding (EC) domain within SPARC and hevin. Solid-phase binding assays confirmed these interactions and showed that both myocilin and its C-terminal olfactomedin fragment interacted noncovalently with SPARC and a peptide containing the EC domain of SPARC. Full-length myocilin interacted with higher affinity with SPARC and its EC domain than the myocilin C-terminal fragment. Coexpression of the two recombinant proteins in HEK-293T cells also indicated their intracellular interaction.

CONCLUSIONS

Recombinant myocilin and SPARC interact through their C-terminal domains. The data suggest that the proteolytic processing of myocilin modulates this interaction as well as the interactions of myocilin with other extracellular matrix and matricellular proteins, further supporting a functional role for this proteolytic cleavage.