In vitro expression analysis shows that the secretory form of gelsolin is the sole source of amyloid in gelsolin-related amyloidosis.

Amyloidoses are a group of diseases where abnormal fibrillar protein deposits accumulate in patients' tissues. In familial amyloidosis of the Finnish type (FAF), or gelsolin-related amyloidosis, the amyloid subunit protein consists of gelsolin peptides of amino acids 173-243 with the disease causing substitution at Asp187. Gelsolin is an actin-modulating protein and exists in both secretory and intracellular forms both encoded by a single gene in chromosome 9. We have previously shown that the FAF-associated forms of secretory gelsolin carrying the Asp187Asn or Asp187Tyr mutations are abnormally processed in cells, resulting in the secretion of an aberrant 68 kDa carboxyterminal fragment. Here we demonstrate by N-terminal sequencing that the amino terminus of this abnormal fragment is the amino acid 173 and thus represents the N-terminus of the FAF amyloid. We also provide evidence that the same truncated gelsolin can be found among the aberrant gelsolin fragments detected in patients' CSF. Finally, we also expressed the FAF-associated forms of intracellular gelsolin in COS-1 cells, and found no abnormality in their processing opposite to secretory form. Our results provide strong evidence that the secretory gelsolin is solely responsible for the amyloid formation in FAF.