Proteolysis of human alpha 2-macroglobulin without hydrolysis of the internal thiolesters or expression of the receptor recognition site.

Proteolysis of human alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) in the bait region is the prerequisite and necessary trigger for the trapping of the proteinase by a massive conformational change of alpha 2M. This labilization of the native conformation of alpha 2M is mediated by activation of the internal thiolesters, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. We now describe observations on proteolysis of human alpha 2M without concomitant hydrolysis of the internal thiolesters or conformational change. This proteolysis was obtained with a novel bacterial proteinase we recently used to isolate the receptor-binding domain from alpha 2M (Van Leuven, F., Marynen, P., Sottrup-Jensen, L., Cassiman, J.-J., and Van Den Berghe, H. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 11369-11373). This proteinase is not inhibited by alpha 2M, and therefore it was possible to study its effect on native alpha 2M at pH 4.5, conditions used previously to produce the receptor-binding domain (Van Leuven, F., Marynen, P., Sottrup-Jensen, L., Cassiman, J.-J., and Van Den Berghe, H. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 11369-11373). The major observations are that despite extensive proteolysis, alpha 2M largely retained its native conformation as shown by rate electrophoresis, the absence of binding of monoclonal antibody F2B2, and the incorporation of [14C]methylamine into a 145-kDa fragment of alpha 2M. Moreover, the derivative still bound trypsin to 88% of control values. Treatment of the derivative with trypsin or methylamine produced the conformational change as with intact alpha 2M, and concomitantly released the receptor-binding domain. This indicated that proteolysis at Lys1313-Glu also proceeded in native alpha 2M. At least one more major proteolysis site was deduced from the observation of a 27-kDa heat-induced fragment, the 145-kDa [14C]methylamine-labeled fragment, and from the presence of the 20-kDa receptor-binding domain. These results demonstrate indirectly the particular relation of the bait region to the internal thiolesters and illustrate further the domain-structure of alpha 2M and the expression of the receptor-recognition site by activation of the internal thiolesters.