The digestion of phagocytosed collagen is inhibited by the proteinase inhibitors leupeptin and E-64.

Using morphometric methods the effects of the thiol-proteinase inhibitors leupeptin and E-64 on the digestion of intracytoplasmic collagen fibrils were studied in cultured mouse bone explants. Both drugs caused a dose-dependent increase of lysosomal structures containing cross-banded collagen fibrils (CCV) in periosteal fibroblasts. After an incubation period of 48 hours, leupeptin (in a concentration of 65 microM) caused a thirty-fold increase in the volume fraction of CCV. This effect proved to be reversible following upon the withdrawal of the drug. Since the leupeptin-related accumulation of intracellular collagen fibrils was not significantly inhibited by alpha, alpha dipyridyl (a drug that interferes with collagen fibril formation), it is thought unlikely that the fibrils represented newly synthesized collagen. This view is further substantiated by data obtained from explants incubated in the presence of the phagocytosis-inhibiting agent cytochalasin B. This compound completely inhibited the leupeptin-related accumulation of CCV. The data strongly suggest that collagen fibrils found in cytoplasmic vacuoles of periosteal fibroblasts represent collagen taken up by phagocytosis, the integrity of cytoplasmic actin filament systems is a prerequisite for phagocytosis of collagen to occur, and thiol-proteinases, such as cathepsin B, L, and/or N, play an essential role in the digestion of internalized collagen.